The scale of domestic semiconductor equipment in the first quarter was 37.7 billion

Recently, the International Semiconductor Industry Association (SEMI) announced the scale of the global semiconductor equipment market in the first quarter of 2021. According to data, this quarter reached 23.5 billion US dollars (about 150 billion yuan), a year-on-year increase of 51%.

The sales in the Korean market was 7.3 billion US dollars, an increase of 173% compared with 3.36 billion US dollars in the same period last year, ranking first in the world.

The sales in mainland China were 5.9 billion US dollars (about 37.7 billion yuan), compared with 3.5 billion US dollars in the same period last year, a year-on-year increase of 69%, and 5.9 billion US dollars also ranked second in the world. Taiwan's market size ranks third.

In 2020, global semiconductor manufacturing equipment sales were US$71.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 19%, of which mainland China, Taiwan, and South Korea ranked first, second, and third in the world, respectively.

It can be seen that South Korea and mainland China spared no effort to develop the semiconductor industry in the first quarter of this year, which led to a huge increase in equipment demand. In particular, South Korea, like the semiconductor competition, went from the third in the world to the first in the world in one fell swoop.

Behind this, semiconductor equipment manufacturers have made a lot of money. According to media reports, the world's major semiconductor equipment manufacturers achieved double-digit growth rates in the first quarter. On the one hand, it was due to increased investment and on the other hand, it is because under the wave of global core shortage, the price of semiconductor equipment has also risen slowly.

For example, Applied Materials' revenue in the first quarter was 5.582 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 41%; its net profit was 1.33 billion US dollars. This was a 76% increase from last year ($755 million). ASML's revenue in the first quarter was 4.3 billion euros, an increase of 79% over the same period last year (2.4 billion euros); profit increased by 225% to 1.3 billion euros, with a profit margin of 53.9%.

In addition, behind this, everyone also needs to pay attention that although my country's semiconductor equipment sales ranks second in the world, these semiconductor equipment still relies on imports, especially high-end equipment, after all, the world's top 10 semiconductor equipment manufacturers, none in mainland China.

According to industry insiders, at least 80% of these semiconductor equipment are imported, because most of the domestic equipment is in 28nn and more mature processes, and there is still a big gap between domestic and foreign equipment for advanced industrial core equipment.

Semiconductor equipment is an indispensable equipment in the chip industry. It is highly dependent on imports, which is equivalent to being stuck in the neck. Therefore, domestic manufacturers really need to work hard.