Worldwide sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment totaled US$15.92 billion in 2009, representing a 46% decline compared to US$29.52 billion posted in 2008, according to SEMI.

In the overall global market, Taiwan was the region with the largest amount of 2009 spending with US$4.35 billion in equipment sales, SEMI said. In second place, the North America market had US$3.39 billion in sales, followed by South Korea, Japan, Europe and China. The rest of the world (ROW), which is comprised of Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, other areas of Southeast Asia and smaller global markets, reached US$1.44 billion.

The global wafer processing equipment market segment decreased 46% in 2009; the assembly and packaging segment slid 31%; and the total test equipment sales dropped 55%. Other front-end equipment sales declined by 44% in 2009.