Worldwide semiconductor capital equipment spending totaled $16.6bn in 2009, a decrease of 45.8% compared to $30.66bn in 2008, according to final results by Gartner.
According to the report, the overall worldwide wafer fab equipment (WFE) spending declined 47%, while back-end equipment (BEE) decreased 40%, as both areas were hit hard by reductions in capital spending. The automated test equipment segment sales fell 53% in 2009, resulting in a market size of $1.15bn.
Despite a 38% decline in revenue in 2009, Applied Materials increased its worldwide market share to 15.1% up from 13.2% in 2008. Tokyo Electron returned to the second position with a share of 9.9%, overtaking ASML. These were followed by KLA-Tencor, Lam Research, Nikon, Dainippon Screen, ASM International, Novellus Systems and Teradyne with market shares of 5.6%, 5.1%, 4.7%, 3.8%, 3.3%, 2.6% and 2.4%, respectively.
Gartner said that the packaging and assembly equipment (PAE) market declined 32.2%, with sales of just over $2.7bn in 2009. In the traditional packaging space, companies selling copper wire bonders performed substantially better than the overall market.
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Dean Freeman, research vice president for semiconductor manufacturing research group at Gartner, said: In the memory sector, continuing losses resulting from plunging prices drove memory capital spending down 54% from an already depressed 2008 level. Logic and mixed-signal spending declined 26% as manufacturers concentrated on technology upgrades to the next line width to position themselves for the recovery.
“By the end of the year, the major companies resumed spending, with a focus on implanting the latest technology throughout their organizations. We expect this trend to continue in 2010, with technology upgrades accounting for the majority of spending – at least through the first half of the year.
