For the second consecutive year, Korea claimed the largest market for new semiconductor equipment with $17.71 billion in sales, followed by China, rising to become the second largest equipment market for the first time with sales of $13.11 billion and displacing Taiwan, which fell to the third position with sales of $10.17 billion. Annual spending rates increased for China, Japan, Rest of World (primarily Southeast Asia), Europe, and North America.

However, new equipment markets in Taiwan and South Korea contracted. The 2018 equipment market rankings for Japan, North America, Europe, and Rest of World remained unchanged from 2017.

Sales for the global wafer processing equipment market segment rose 15 percent while other front-end segment sales jumped 9 percent. Total test equipment sales increased 20 percent as assembly and packaging sales increased 2 percent.

Compiled from data submitted by members of SEMI and the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ), the Worldwide SEMS Report is a summary of the monthly billings figures for the global semiconductor equipment industry. Categories cover wafer processing, assembly and packaging, test, and other front-end equipment. Other front-end includes mask/reticle manufacturing, wafer manufacturing, and fab facilities equipment.

The annual billings data by region in billions of U.S. dollars with year-over-year rates by region are as follows: