Semiconductor Equipment Market Outlook Report Update
"AI Provides Growth Potential... 177 Trillion Won Next Year"
The Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) released a semiconductor equipment market outlook report on the 16th, stating that global semiconductor equipment sales are expected to reach $109 billion (approximately 150 trillion KRW) this year. Both front-end and back-end equipment industries are continuing their growth trends, with sales projected to increase to $128 billion (approximately 177 trillion KRW) next year.
Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, visited the Samsung Electronics booth at the annual developer conference 'GTC 2024' held in San Jose, USA, last March and is known to have left his autograph on the 12-stack HBM3E (5th generation) product. [Photo by Yonhap News]
Ajit Manocha, CEO of SEMI, said, "The semiconductor equipment market growth will continue this year, recording a 17% growth rate next year," adding, "Especially with new applications emerging through artificial intelligence (AI), the semiconductor equipment market as a whole is being provided with strong fundamentals and significant growth potential."
By segment, the wafer fab equipment sector is expected to record $96 billion (approximately 133 trillion KRW) last year and $98 billion (approximately 136 trillion KRW) this year. This figure is higher than the $93 billion (approximately 129 trillion KRW) forecasted at the end of last year. SEMI stated, "Strong investments in the China region and increased demand for DRAM and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) driven by AI are the main growth factors." Next year, wafer fab equipment sales are expected to reach $113 billion (approximately 155 trillion KRW), a 14.7% increase from this year. Demand for advanced logic semiconductors and memory semiconductors is expected to continue growing.
Semiconductor test equipment sales are projected to reach $6.7 billion (approximately 9.3 trillion KRW), a 7.4% increase from $6.3 billion (approximately 8.7 trillion KRW) last year. Assembly and packaging equipment sales are expected to reach $4.4 billion (approximately 6 trillion KRW), a 10% increase from $4 billion (approximately 5.5 trillion KRW) last year. SEMI noted, "Growth in the back-end sector was limited over the past two years due to macroeconomic downturns and reduced semiconductor demand, but recovery is expected to begin in the second half of this year."
SEMI forecasts that growth in the back-end equipment sector will accelerate next year. Test equipment sales are expected to increase by 30.3% to $8.8 billion (approximately 12.2 trillion KRW), and assembly and packaging equipment sales are projected to rise by 34.9% to $6 billion (approximately 8.3 trillion KRW). SEMI explained, "Increased demand for advanced semiconductors for high-performance computing and recovery in demand for automotive and consumer electronics are key growth drivers," adding, "Growth in the back-end sector will also rise to handle the increased supply volume from front-end fabs."
Looking at wafer fab equipment sales by application, foundry and logic semiconductor equipment sales are expected to reach $57.2 billion (approximately 80 trillion KRW) this year, a 2.9% decrease from last year. Next year, sales are projected to increase by 10.3% to $63 billion (approximately 87 trillion KRW). SEMI stated, "This year's foundry and logic semiconductor wafer fab equipment sales will decline compared to last year due to mature node demand slowdown and significant investments in advanced nodes implemented last year," adding, "Growth is expected next year due to increased demand for advanced technologies, new architecture adoption, and increased investments."
Memory equipment investment is surging this year and is expected to continue growing next year. DRAM equipment sales are projected to grow by 24.1% this year and 12.3% next year, thanks to the rapid increase in demand for AI-related HBM semiconductors. NAND flash equipment sales are expected to increase by 1.5% this year to $9.35 billion (approximately 13 trillion KRW). Next year, sales are projected to rise by 55.5% to $14.6 billion (approximately 20.2 trillion KRW).
By region, China, Taiwan, and Korea are expected to maintain their positions as the top three equipment investors through next year. China is expected to lead with equipment investments of $35 billion (approximately KRW) this year.
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