Taiwan overtook Korea to be the biggest market last year buying equipment worth $17.12 billion.

China was second, buying equipment worth $13.45 billion.

Korea’s spending was down 44% at $9.97 billion to take 4th place.

North America spending jumped 40% to $8.15 billion – the third consecutive annual increase.

Wafer processing equipment dropped 6% in 2019, while other front-end segment sales grew 9%.

Assembly and packaging and  test equipment sales declined 27% and 11%, respectively.

Sales to China rose across all major equipment segments except for assembly and packaging.