Global sales of total semiconductor manufacturing equipment by original equipment manufacturers are forecast to reach a new high of $103 billion in 2021, surging 44.7 percent from the previous industry record of $71 billion in 2020, according to industry organisation SEMI.
SEMI released its findings in its Year-End Total Semiconductor Equipment Forecast – OEM Perspective at SEMICON Japan 2021.
The growth is expected to continue with the global total semiconductor manufacturing equipment market expanding to $114 billion by 2022.
Ajit Manocha, SEMI president and CEO, says: “Crossing the $100 billon mark in total semiconductor manufacturing equipment sales reflects the global semiconductor industry’s concerted and exceptional drive to expand capacity to meet strong demand. We expect continuing investments in the digital infrastructure buildout and secular trends across multiple end markets to fuel healthy growth in 2022.”
The following results reflect market size by segment and application in billions of US dollars:
Both the front-end (wafer fab) and back-end (assembly/packaging and test) semiconductor equipment segments are contributing to the global expansion.
The wafer fab equipment segment, which includes wafer processing, fab facilities, and mask/reticle equipment, is projected to expand 43.8 percent to a new industry record of $88 billion in 2021, followed by a 12.4 percent increase in 2022 to approximately $99 billion. Wafer fab equipment in 2023 is expected to decrease slightly by -0.5 percent to $98.4 billion.
The foundry and logic segments, accounting for more than half of total wafer fab equipment sales, will surge 50 percent year-over-year to reach $49.3 billion in 2021 driven by demand for both leading-edge and mature nodes. The growth momentum is expected to continue in 2022 with the foundry and logic equipment investments rising 17 percent.
Strong enterprise and consumer demand for memory and storage is contributing to strength in DRAM and NAND equipment spending. The DRAM equipment segment is leading the expansion in 2021 surging 52 percent to $15.1 billion and growing 1 percent in 2022 to $15.3 billion.
The NAND equipment market is projected to jump 24 percent in 2021 to $19.2 billion and 8 percent in 2022 to $20.6 billion. Expenditures are expected to drop by -2 percent and -3 percent in 2023 for DRAM and NAND respectively.
After seeing robust 33.8 percent growth in 2020, the assembly and packaging equipment segment is expected to surge by 81.7 percent to $7 billion in 2021, followed by another 4.4 percent increase in 2022 driven by advanced packaging applications.
The semiconductor test equipment market is expected to grow 29.6 percent in 2021 to $7.8 billion and continue to expand by 4.9 percent in 2022 on demand for 5G and high-performance computing (HPC) applications.
Regionally, China, Korea, and Taiwan are projected to remain the top three destinations for equipment spending in 2021. China is projected to maintain the top position, which it claimed for the first time in 2020, while Taiwan is expected to regain the top position in the market in 2022 and 2023. Equipment spending for all regions tracked are expected to grow in 2021 and 2022.
