By Christina Bruns

WaferNews Associate Editor

Worldwide sales of Japanese semiconductor equipment plunged 73% sequentially, falling from 112.9 billion yen to 30.3 billion yen for the month of October. That figure is also a 76.7% decline year-over-year, from the 130.2 billion yen logged in October 2000, according to a recent report by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

But equipment sales within Japan didn’t fare quite as badly. They totaled 24.8 billion yen for October, a decrease of 57% sequentially over the 57.7 billion yen logged in the previous month. That figure’s down 66.8% year-over-year from the 74.9 billion yen posted in October 2000.

Orders for Japanese-made semiconductor equipment, including exports, totaled 33.7 billion yen for October, a drop of 22% sequentially from the 43.3 billion yen logged in September.

That figure’s down a whopping 81.3% year-over-year, a decline second only to the level reported in October 1993, the SEAJ said.

Japanese domestic orders totaled 30 billion yen for October, down 5% from the 31.6 billion yen posted in September, but a 69% decrease from the 95.9 billion yen logged during the same period last year.