Global Semiconductor Equipment Billings Reach Industry Record $107.6 Billion in 2022

[Daniel Nenni]

Apr 12, 2023

MILPITAS, Calif. – April 12, 2023 – Worldwide sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment increased 5% from $102.6 billion in 2021 to an all-time record of $107.6 billion last year, SEMI, the industry association representing the global electronics design and manufacturing supply chain, reported today. The data is now available in the Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Market Statistics (WWSEMS) Report.

For the third consecutive year, China remained the largest semiconductor equipment market in 2022 despite a 5% slowdown in the pace of investments in the region year over year, accounting for $28.3 billion in billings. Taiwan, the second-largest destination for equipment spending, recorded an increase of 8% to $26.8 billion, marking the fourth straight year of growth for the region. Equipment sales to Korea contracted 14% to $21.5 billion. Annual semiconductor equipment investments in Europe surged 93%, while North America logged a 38% increase. Sales to the Rest of World and Japan increased 34% and 7% year over year, respectively.


“The record high for semiconductor manufacturing equipment sales in 2022 stems from the industry’s drive to add the fab capacity required to support long-term growth and innovations in key end markets including high-performance computing and automotive,” said Ajit Manocha, SEMI president and CEO. “Additionally, the results reflect investments and determination across regions to avoid future semiconductor supply chain constraints like those that surfaced during the pandemic.”

Global sales of wafer processing equipment rose 8% in 2022, while other front-end segment billings grew 11%. After robust growth in 2021, assembly and packaging equipment sales decreased 19% last year while total test equipment billings contracted 4% year over year.
Compiled from data submitted by members of SEMI and the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ), the WWSEMS Report is a summary of the monthly billings figures for the global semiconductor equipment industry.

The SEMI Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) provides comprehensive market data for the global semiconductor equipment market. The subscription includes three reports:

• Monthly SEMI Billings Report, a perspective on equipment market trends
• 
  
• Monthly Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Market Statistics (WWSEMS), a detailed report of semiconductor equipment billings for seven regions and 24 market segments
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• SEMI Semiconductor Equipment Forecast, an outlook for the semiconductor equipment market

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For more information about the report or to subscribe, please contact the SEMI Market Intelligence Team at mktstats@semi.org. More details are also available on the SEMI Market Data webpage.

About SEMI
SEMI® connects more than 2,500 member companies and 1.3 million professionals worldwide to advance the technology and business of electronics design and manufacturing. SEMI members are responsible for the innovations in materials, design, equipment, software, devices, and services that enable smarter, faster, more powerful, and more affordable electronic products. Electronic System Design Alliance (ESD Alliance), FlexTech, the Fab Owners Alliance (FOA), the MEMS & Sensors Industry Group (MSIG) and SOI Consortium are SEMI Strategic Technology Communities. Visit www.semi.org, contact one of our worldwide offices, and connect with SEMI on LinkedIn and Twitter to learn more.

Association Contact
Michael Hall/SEMI
Phone: 1.408.943.7988
Email: mhall@semi.org

 

[Daniel Nenni]

It can only go down from here in 2023. Let's see what TSMC says about CAPEX next week.

 

[ashwinbrao1]

I don't get the china semi spend. Are they stockpiling equipment for future use or is there a belief that the equipment will be productive in the near term?

 

[M. Y. Zuo]

Are these regional figures calculated on the basis of where the equipment is actually installed?

 

[benb]

I predict growth pain for North America going from $7B in 2021 to $20s (which would be the same ballpark as China, Korea and Taiwan). That's a heavy lift with lots of disruptions happening, ongoing, and worsening.

 

[Nokokara]

It can only go down from here in 2023. Let's see what TSMC says about CAPEX next week.

Semiconductor Equipment revenues will go down in 2023 as the global semiconductor market will also strongly decrease this year pushing many companies to delay or cancel their added capacity and/or new fabs (like for example Intel in Germany and also TSMC now also in Taiwan in addition to initially their new fab planned in Germany…)…
Indeed, for TSMC their will be more/clearer details in their Q1 2023 presentation next week on 20th of April, but
(i) in addition to their already decrease of (expected) Capex in 2022 finally at 36.29 B$ vs their 44B$ initially forecasted but still well above their 2021 30.04B$ (and historically their initially only ~ 10B$/year…),
(ii) their 2023 Capex initially already expected lower than 2022 at only 32 ~ 36B$, will be now probably be announced to further reduction below the 32B$ given their reduction/delay of new plants and added capacity already mentioned in 28nm and 7nm (keeping them to continue pushing up their wafers prices in 2H 2023 to still well cover their Capex but also their higher manufacturing costs from their activity in new/other countries…

 

[tonyget]

Are these regional figures calculated on the basis of where the equipment is actually installed?

I think it calculated on major equipment firm's regional sells figure

 

[Nokokara]

Yes indeed it seems to be related to the sales of semiconductor equipment into the related mentioned countries/regions as it is not at all the revenue of companies of these countries/regions making these equipment (for example, Europe is referred to 6.28B$ in 2022 while their biggest -but not only- one ASML had 21.2B€ in this year vs the 18.6B€ in 2021…)…
But it is not clear if they can really/precisely get the split of revenues per country/regions in which these equipment have really been installed/used, both
(i) from each/all the semiconductor equipment companies in the world…
(ii) and taking into account their customers eventual internal transfer/reexportation in another country (like if, for example TSMC, would be sometimes buying/paying it from Taiwan even for their other/new fabs in now many other countries…)…

 

[Nokokara]

But also the Capex is covering much more topics than only the semiconductor equipment, even sometimes with much bigger other/additive spendings, especially for pure new fabs…
So, it is probably often/always difficult from the global Capex evolution to have a precise/detailed vision of just only the level of collapse or stabilization or increase of the pure level of spendings for semiconductor equipment…

 

[Nokokara]

Now apparently from TSMC, their biggest customer, ASML would already have had a reduction of orders for EUV equipment that some expect to finally be reduced by at least 40%, eventually some only with delays, but probably TSMC will not provide precise details about that with ASML in their presentation/communication this week on 20th of April,…

 

[Nokokara]

Surprisingly (perhaps thanks to US Chips Act and EU Chips Act rather than TSMC and some others…), in their Q1 2023 results published today 19th of April, ASML is still expecting (dreaming ???…) highly (more than +25% vs 21173 M€ in 2022…) growing 2023 revenues with also a slightly higher growth margin already now a bit above 50% since 2021 (50.5% in 2022 which decrease a bit vs their 52.7% in 2021…)…
And their Q1 2023 revenue of 6746 M€ is also still a growth of +4.9% vs Q4 2022 and almost double (+90.9%) vs their low 3534 M€ Q1 2022 revenue...
And their 2022 revenue of 21173 M€ grew only +13.8% vs 2021 but also almost double (+93.5%) vs their low 10944 M€ in 2018…

 

[lefty]

Not surprising at all. ASML has a huge backlog. Their revenues depend on how many machines they can manufacture, not on how many sales they made.

 

[Nokokara]

TSMC presented their Q1 2023 results with their updated expectations for next quarter Q2 2023 and a bit about the full year 2023…
(i) Concerning their revenue which was still previously seen as (a bit, +3.6%…) growing in Q1 2023 vs Q1 2022 with the monthly data only mentioned in local NTD Taiwanese currency, it was now also mentioned in USD with then already a bigger (-4.8%…) decreased growth YoY, and the full year 2023 revenue is now expected to only decrease “low to mid single digit” (-1% ~ -5%), while Q2 2023 is expected further decreasing to 15.2 B$ ~ 16 B$ much deeper YoY -11.9% ~ -16.3%, and then making the first half of 2023 expected to decrease by about -10%…

(ii) Capex 2023 is still expected at same level between 32 ~ 36 B$, with
1- Q1 2023 Capex at only 9.94 B$, -8.1% vs the 10.82 B$ last quarter Q4 2022 but still +6% above the 9.38 B$ last year Q1 2022…
2- Capex being main focus for the “future” (not this year…) in advanced technologies 3nm (with some simple transfer from 5nm and also now specific packaging within them…) then 2nm but now also 28nm, but without details given on their supplies and related sources (ASML…) nor amounts ratio between equipment, building and others (just ratio of their revenues per market and technologies, in Q1 2023, 51% of their revenue being from their advanced technologies, 7nm / 20% and 5nm / 31%…)…

 

[Nokokara]

While TSMC was now having decreasing revenues in Q1 2023 -4,8% YoY like (but a bit less than many…) other semiconductor companies (Samsung @ -18% YoY, Intel much deeply @ -36% YoY…), STMicroelectronics, with only a little decrease -4% QoQ in Q1 2023, was still strongly increasing +19.8% their revenue YoY, so it was surprising that yesterday following their more positive Q1 2023 presentation, their share price strongly decreased, initially @ -8.23% then again a bit further @ -10.87% in the mid of the afternoon and finally @ -8.72% at the end of day…