KUALA LUMPUR (July 13): The global semiconductor equipment market will be flat this year and will rebound in 2017, according to the mid-year edition of the US-based Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International’s (SEMI) Capital Equipment Forecast, released yesterday.

SEMI forecast that the total semiconductor equipment market will grow 1% in 2016 (reaching US$36.9 billion) after contracting 3% in 2015.

It said an increase of 11% is expected in 2017 for the market to reach US$41.1 billion.

SEMI said equipment spending had a slow start in the beginning of the year and is expected to accelerate in the second half of the year.

It said spending growth will continue into 2017 driven by foundries, memory (both 3D NAND and DRAM), MPU, Power, and investments in China.

SEMI said front-end wafer processing equipment is forecast to grow 2 percent in 2016 to total US$29.3 billion, up from US$28.8 billion in 2015.

It said the Test equipment segment is expected to total US$3.4 billion, essentially flat when compared to last year.

It said assembly and packaging equipment and Other Front End equipment are forecast to contract this year, falling to US$2.4 billion (-5%) and US$1.9 billion (-2%), respectively.

SEMI president and CEO Denny McGuirk said that after a tepid 2015, device manufacturers are beginning to ramp their investments in key industry segments.

“We expect capital spending to improve for the remainder of 2016 and into 2017,” he said.

SEMI said Taiwan is forecast to continue as the world’s largest spender with US$9.5 billion estimated for 2016 and US$10.0 billion for 2017.

It said that in 2016, China is projected to be the second largest spender at US$6.4 billion, followed by Korea at US$6.2 billion.

For 2017, Taiwan is projected to maintain its leading position while the market in Korea will nudge past the market in China, it said.