China, which is making a bid to become one of the world’s biggest chipmaking nations, is likely for the first time to be among the top-three spenders on chipmaking equipment in 2016, according to industry association SEMI.

The big spenders this year will be Taiwan, South Korea and China, SEMI said in a press statement released at the annual SEMICON Japan exhibition in Tokyo. China, with a forecast expenditure of  $6.7 billion, will overtake the number-three spot from Japan, coming in at $4.8 billion, according to SEMI.

Total worldwide spending will increase by 8.7 percent to $39.7 billion, according to the chip industry association, which also forecast an increase in expenditures on chipmaking equipment in 2017 to $43.40 billion.

China, the world’s workshop, assembles smartphones, tablets and PCs for everyone from Apple to ZTE, yet still imports more chips than it makes domestically. The nation has been aiming to capture a bigger piece of the semiconductor business since the late 1990s. China will increase its share of total domestic chip consumption to 21 percent by 2020 compared with about 13 percent in 2015, according to market researcher IC Insights.

SEMI forecasts that in 2017, equipment sales in Europe will climb the most, 51.7 percent, to a total of $2.8 billion, following a 10.0 percent contraction in 2016. In 2017, Taiwan, Korea and China are forecast to remain the top three markets, with Taiwan maintaining the top spot even with a 9.2 percent decline to total $10.2 billion. Equipment sales to Korea are forecast at $9.7 billion, while equipment sales to China are expected to reach $7.0 billion.

SEMI predicts that wafer processing equipment, the largest product segment by dollar value, is anticipated to increase 8.2 percent in 2016 to total $31.2 billion. The assembly and packaging equipment segment is projected to grow by 14.6 percent to $2.9 billion in 2016 while semiconductor test equipment is forecast to increase by 16.0 percent, to a total of $3.9 billion this year.

By: DocMemory
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