Worldwide semiconductor shipment in boom after 17 years ¡¦Korea to enjoy ¡®No.1¡¯
Kim Eun | silverkim@ | 2017-12-14 12:26:11

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have invested heavily in facilities, so the global semiconductor equipment market has reached a record high this year. For the same reason, Korea has emerged as the world`s largest semiconductor equipment market.

According to the International Semiconductor Equipment Association (SEMI) released on December 13, global semiconductor equipment shipments in 2017, semiconductor equipment revenues for the year totaled USD 55.9 billion (about KRW 61 trillion), a record high of USD 44.7 billion in 2000. It is expected to clean up. It is expected to continue to record sales of USD 60.1 billion (about USD 65.6 trillion), up 7.5 % next year.

SEMI expects that wafer processing equipment will increase by 45.5 % to USD 2.6 billion this year, up by 37.5 % to USD 45 billion and other front-end equipment such as plant and wafer manufacturing. The assembly and packaging equipment segment is expected to increase by 25.8% to USD 3.8 billion and test equipment to grow by 22% to USD 4.5 billion.

This year, the semiconductor equipment market was greatly expanded in Korea. Korea`s semiconductor equipment sales are expected to surpass Taiwan, which has climbed 132.6% year-on-year to USD 17.89 billion (about KRW 19.5 trillion), the number one spot for the fifth consecutive year. It is expected to maintain the top market share of the country with sales of USD 16.9 billion next year. China, which grew 17.5 % from last year and up 61.4 % next year to USD 11.3 billion, is expected to rank second after Korea.

In fact, domestic semiconductor equipment makers such as Wonik IPS and SFA have recorded strong sales and operating profit up to 3 times this year. Samsung Semiconductor and SK Hynix are expected to suffer from the impact of aggressive investment by domestic semiconductor companies. Samsung Electronics is investing 29.5 trillion won in semiconductor facility investment this year and is expected to invest heavily in facility construction for the second floor of the Pyeongtaek plant next year. The situation is similar for SK Hynix, which made the largest investment of KRW 9.6 trillion this year.

Meanwhile, SEMI forecasts that silicon wafer shipments for semiconductors will reach 11.448 billion square inches this year, up 8 % from last year`s record of 10.557 billion square inches. Expected to grow to 11.184 billion square inches next year and 12.235 billion square inches in 2019.


By Kim Eun silverkim@


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