San Jose, Calif. – The final numbers for the revenue generated by assembly equipment sales in 2001 are in, and the results are not pretty. According to SEMI/SEAJ, the industry purchased $1.41 billion of assembly equipment in 2001, compared to $3.76 billion in 2000. This makes 2001 the worst year since 1994 by that metric.
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The quarterly data over the past 10 years (see chart) tells more of the story, though, with a dramatic drop during the course of 2001, falling from $639 million in the first quarter to $178 million in the fourth quarter. The previous downturn years of 1996 and 1998 were quite stable by comparison. In fact, the first quarter of 2001 was still the sixth best quarter ever, while the fourth quarter of 2001 was worse than any other quarter since 1991, except for the fourth quarter of 1992, which had $177 million of assembly equipment sales.