Korea’s Shipments of Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment Came in First

The Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) announced on September 12 that semiconductor manufacturing equipment shipments totaled US$14.1 billion worldwide in the second quarter of this year, up 8% from the previous quarter and up 35% from a year earlier.

South Korea’s shipments totaled US$4.79 billion, coming in first for the second consecutive quarter. Its shipments increased 36% from the previous quarter and 212% from the same period of the previous year.

Samsung Electronics put a new semiconductor manufacturing plant into operation in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province in July this year. The plant has an area of 2.89 million square meters and is the largest semiconductor manufacturing plant in the world. More recently, Samsung Electronics announced that it would invest a total of 30 trillion won until 2021 for semiconductor manufacturing facility expansion. Likewise, SK Hynix is planning to invest no less than 9.6 trillion won in its facilities this year. Chinese companies such as XMC and Tsinghua Unigroup, in the meantime, are planning to invest approximately 200 trillion won for the same purpose.

South Korea was followed by Taiwan (US$2.76 billion) and China (US$2.51 billion). Taiwan’s shipments fell 21% from the previous quarter whereas China’s grew 25%. They were followed by Japan (US$1.55 billion), North America (US$1.23 billion) and Europe (US$0.66 billion).