SEMI, the global industry association for companies that supply manufacturing technology and materials to the world’s chip makers, today reported that worldwide semiconductor manufacturing equipment billings reached US$9.52 billion in the first quarter of 2015. The billings figure is 7 percent higher than the fourth quarter of 2014 and 6 percent lower than the same quarter a year ago. The data is gathered jointly with the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) from over 100 global equipment companies that provide data on a monthly basis.
Worldwide semiconductor equipment bookings were $9.66 billion in the first quarter of 2015. The figure is 2 percent lower than the same quarter a year ago and 3 percent lower than the bookings figure for the fourth quarter of 2014.
The quarterly billings data by region in billions of U.S. dollars, quarter-over-quarter growth and year-over-year rates by region are as follows:
| Region |
1Q2015 |
4Q2014 |
1Q2014 |
1Q15/4Q14 (Q-o-Q) |
1Q15/1Q14 (Y-o-Y) |
| Korea |
2.69 |
2.09 |
2.03 |
29% |
33% |
| Taiwan |
1.81 |
2.03 |
2.59 |
-11% |
-30% |
| North America |
1.47 |
1.83 |
1.85 |
-19% |
-20% |
| Japan |
1.26 |
1.11 |
0.96 |
13% |
31% |
| China |
1.17 |
0.68 |
1.71 |
73% |
-32% |
| Europe |
0.69 |
0.58 |
0.58 |
19% |
19% |
| Rest of World |
0.43 |
0.59 |
0.42 |
-27% |
1% |
| Total |
9.52 |
8.91 |
10.15 |
7% |
-6% |
Source: SEMI/SEAJ June 2015; Note: Figures may not add due to rounding.