In peak demand, China is recognized as the 2nd largest market for semiconductor equipment in the world.
According to the latest data from SEMI, the global sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment will increase by 10.8% in 2018, reaching US$62.7 billion, exceeding the historical high of US$56.6 billion set last year. The equipment market is expected to set another record in 2019, with an expected growth of 7.7% to $67.6 billion. South Korea will remain as the largest equipment market for two consecutive years, while China will lead with a growth rate of 43.5%, ranking second in the world for the first time. SEMI also predicts that by 2019, China's equipment sales will increase by 46.6% to $17.3 billion. It is expected that by 2019, China, South Korea and Taiwan will continue to be the top three markets, and mainland China will forge to the top. South Korea is expected to become the second largest market at $16.3 billion and Taiwan to reach $12.3 billion in equipment sales. We believe that China’s strengthened market position is the result of accelerated shift of the global semiconductor production capacity to mainland China. According to the IDC statistics, in 2016 - 2020, out of the 62 new wafer foundries in the world, 26 will be built in mainland China. At the same time, domestic IC equipment began to enter into the new Fab production line in mainland China in 2018, including Yangtze River Storage and SMIC, etc. Domestic semiconductor equipment will leap into a golden breakthrough in the next three years, while domestic semiconductor material companies will penetrate at a faster rate. (Source: China Industrial Economic Information Network)