March 11, 2005 – The worldwide market for semiconductor manufacturing equipment expanded by nearly two-thirds in 2004, its second-highest performance ever behind the historic year 2000, according to Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI).

Sales of chipmaking equipment for the year totaled $37.08 billion, a 67% increase from 2003, driven by robust spending in all geographic regions on 300mm equipment and other advanced technologies, according to SEMI president and CEO Stanley Myers.

The data from SEMI and SEAJ members, covering seven major semiconductor producing regions and 22 product categories, clearly shows the market’s heavy dependence on the Asia-Pacific region. After surpassing slumping North America as the biggest region in 2003, Japan widened that gap considerably in 2004, expanding another 45% to $8.28 billion. Coasting into the No.2 slot was Taiwan, posting a hefty 166% growth to $7.76 billion, while North America slipped to third ($5.81 billion) with 23% growth, the smallest growth rate of any region. Put together, Japan and Taiwan are now nearly 3x the size of the Americas region.

Also making big strides in 2004 was China, which increased 132% to capture $2.68 billion in sales. The Korean market, which nearly doubled in 2003, grew another 45% in 2004 to $4.61 billion, followed closely by the rest-of-world region (incorporating Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, and other smaller global markets) at $4.49 billion. Europe posted 35% growth to finish the year at $3.44 billion.

By technology market segment, sales of global wafer processing equipment grew 73%, while assembly/packaging increased 47%, and test equipment sales rose 55%.