December 15, 2005 – Global sales of semiconductor-manufacturing equipment in October fell 12.2% from a year before to US$25,737 million dollars, falling for the ninth straight month, according to data released yesterday by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan and other institutions, reported the Jiji Press.

Although sales of chipmaking equipment grew in Japan, North America and South Korea, sales in Taiwan and China marked sharp declines.

Sales rose 4.5% to 682.64 million dollars in Japan, 2.9% to 529.49 million dollars in North America, and 1.6% to 309.11 million dollars in South Korea On the other hand, Europe saw a sales drop of 6.4% to 255.57 million dollars, Taiwan 45.6% to 419.89 million dollars and China 20.7% to 121.90 million dollars.

As for product-by-product sales, testing equipment jumped 33.6% to 502.67 million dollars, and assembling machines surged 91.3% to 224.49 million dollars. But wafer-processing equipment fell 25.5% to 1,654.03 million dollars.