Following a 6.1 percent contraction this year and a transition period in 2024, total global sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment will reach a new high of 124 billion dollars, according to data released by Semi. The rebound is driven by capacity expansions, new fab projects and high demand for advanced technologies and solutions across the front-end and back-end segments.
After registering a record 94 billion dollars in sales last year, the wafer fab equipment (WFE) segment, which includes wafer processing, fab facilities and mask/reticle equipment, is projected to slip 3.7 percent to 90.6 billion dollars in 2023. This contraction marks a significant improvement from the 18.8 percent decline forecast by Semi earlier this year. WFE sales are projected to grow at a modest 3 percent in 2024 from the revised 2023 base due to limited memory capacity addition and the pause of mature capacity expansion. A growth path with a further 18 percent expansion in 2025 is expected as new fab projects, capacity expansion and technology migrations drive investments to nearly 110 billion dollars.
The decline in back-end equipment segment sales started in 2022 and continued in 2023 due to challenging macroeconomic conditions and softening semiconductor demand. Semiconductor test equipment market sales are projected to contract by 15.9 percent to 6.3 billion dollars in 2023, while assembly and packaging equipment sales are expected to drop by 31 percent to 4.0 billion dollars in the same year. The test equipment and assembly and packaging equipment segments are forecast to expand by 13.9 percent and 24.3 percent, respectively, next year. Back-end segment growth is expected to continue in 2025, with test equipment sales rising 17 percent and assembly and packaging sales increasing 20 percent.
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