Gartner: Semiconductor equipment market up nearly 150% in 2010

Gartner Inc. said the semiconductor equipment market has recovered from a global slump, growing by 149 percent in 2010. This is a market growth of $41 billion. The automatic test equipment sector saw the biggest growth of 149 percent, followed by wafer fab equipment (145 percent) and sales of packaging assembly equipment (127 percent).

"The semiconductor equipment market soared in 2010. Driven by pent-up demand from the 2008 and 2009 downturn, and a stronger economy than projected, 2010 just kept getting better and better," according to Klaus Rinnen, vice president at Gartner. "Memory and foundry spending were the key drivers, although all areas showed significant growth. The year began with technology buys, and capacity purchases soon followed, resulting in one of the hottest growth years in industry history. We also witnessed a number of changes in the top 10 semiconductor capital equipment companies, as strength in double patterning benefited some companies more than others."

The share of the top 10 semiconductor capital equipment companies rose nearly 2 percentage points in 2010, accounting for 63.4 percent of total revenue, up from 61.6 percent in 2009 (Refer to the Table below.).

While applied materials remains on top of the heap, Gartner said it failed to capitalize on the strong lithography spending in 2010. ASML, meanwhile, grew the most in 2010, jumping from No. 3 to No. 2 on the back of immersion lithography for double patterning and taking a 13 percent market share. Tokyo Electron fell to No. 3, even though its market share increased, as some of its key customers reduced spending.

Meanwhile, Gartner believes that while the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crises in Japan will continue to have a short-term impact on the industry, semiconductor equipment manufacturers will bounce back in the second half of 2011.