Semiconductor equipment biz to bounce back in 2014 with 23.2% growth

U.S. based Semiconductor manufacturing equipment industry body SEMI has reported the worldwide sales of new semiconductor manufacturing equipment will contract 13.3 percent to $32.0 billion in 2013. SEMI has forecasted a growth rate of 23.2% in sales for the year 2014. All the key regions such as America, Europe, Asia-Pacific is predicted to have strong positive growth. SEMI also predicts a growth of 2.4% for the year 2015 with Japan, Europe, Korea, China, and Rest of World regions registering positive growth. The other market analysis points released by SEMI includes: The SEMI Year-end Forecast predicts that wafer processing equipment, the largest product segment by dollar value, is anticipated to decrease 10.7 percent in 2013 to total $25.1 billion, on par with 2004 spending levels. The forecast predicts that the market for assembly and packaging equipment will decline by 22.1 percent to $2.4 billion in 2013. The market for semiconductor test equipment is forecasted to decline by 20.7 percent, reaching $2.8 billion this year. The “Other Front End” category (fab facilities, mask/reticle, and wafer manufacturing equipment) is expected in decrease 25.2 percent in 2013. Korea, Taiwan, and North America remain the largest spending regions, though of the three only Taiwan is expected to show an increase in spending for 2013. According to SEMI, in 2013, Taiwan will reach equi...