Taiwan was the largest buyer of semiconductor equipment in the third quarter of this year, as domestic chipmakers expanded production capacity and upgraded technologies in a bid to improve worldwide competitiveness, global semiconductor trade association SEMI said yesterday.
Taiwanese companies’ semiconductor equipment purchases totaled US$7.33 billion in the July-to-September period, according to data compiled by SEMI, which represents companies in the electronics manufacturing and design supply chains.
The data showed a quarterly growth of 45 percent in the third quarter, reversing a decline of 12 percent in the second quarter, as peak-season effects in the second half of the year prompted many Taiwanese semiconductor suppliers to purchase equipment for business expansions, analysts said.
On an annual basis, purchases rose 54 percent, the data showed.
Worldwide spending on semiconductor equipment hit a record of US$26.8 billion in the third quarter, up 8 percent from a quarter earlier and up 38 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.
The third quarter was the fifth consecutive quarter of record-breaking global spending, it showed.
SEMI said the growth reflected strong demand for tech applications in sectors such as communications, computing, medical care, online services and automotive electronics.
China dropped from first to second place in the SEMI ranking, as the country’s firms purchased US$7.27 billion in semiconductor equipment in the third quarter, down 12 percent from a quarter earlier, but up 29 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.
South Korea came in third, as its semiconductor equipment spending reached US$5.58 billion, down 16 percent from a quarter earlier, it showed.
North America and Japan claimed the fourth and fifth place respectively, it showed.
North American companies’ purchases totaled US$2.29 billion in the third quarter, while Japanese firms spent US$2.11 billion on new semiconductor equipment, up 36 percent and 19 percent respectively from a quarter earlier, the data showed.
In a research report released in July, SEMI forecast that semiconductor equipment shipments would hit a record at US$95.3 billion this year, up 34 percent from a year earlier.
The association forecast that South Korea, Taiwan and China would be the top three equipment spenders this year.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
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