Sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment in Japan have surged, with April 2024 marking the largest increase in 17 months and setting a new record for the highest monthly sales. The Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) announced on May 27th that sales reached JPY 389.106 billion, a 15.7% increase compared to the same month last year. This marks the fourth consecutive month of growth, the largest increase since November 2022, and a substantial 19.1% growth rate.
For the sixth consecutive month, monthly sales exceeded JPY 300 billion, breaking the previous record of JPY 380.929 billion set in September 2022. Compared to March 2024, sales grew by 6.4%, continuing the trend of month-on-month growth. Cumulative sales from January to April 2024 totaled JPY 1.387079 trillion, a 9.4% increase from the same period last year, setting a new historical high.
Japan’s semiconductor equipment market holds a 30% global market share, second only to the United States. Japanese chip equipment giant Tokyo Electron (TEL) noted in a recent financial report that the rising demand for DDR5 and HBM from the second half of this year is expected to drive investment in leading-edge DRAM. Consequently, the global market for front-end chip manufacturing equipment (Wafer Fab Equipment; WFE) is projected to grow by 5% year-on-year in 2024, reaching approximately $100 billion, matching the historical high of 2022.
Furthermore, with the continued growth in AI servers and a recovery in demand for PCs and smartphones, the WFE market is anticipated to see a double-digit increase in 2025. Screen Holdings, another key player in the semiconductor equipment sector, highlighted in their financial report that investments in both mature processes in China and advanced processes in Taiwan are expected to contribute to the market’s growth, forecasting a 5% annual increase in 2024.
The robust performance of Japan’s semiconductor equipment industry underscores its critical role in the global supply chain and its capacity to meet the escalating demand for advanced semiconductor technologies.
