SAN JOSE — Worldwide sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment totaled $36.93 billion in 2012, down 15% year-over-year.

The data are reported by members of SEMI and the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan and cover wafer processing, assembly and packaging, test, and other front-end equipment. Other front-end includes mask/reticle manufacturing, wafer manufacturing, and fab facilities equipment.

Spending rates declined for all regions except Korea and Taiwan. Taiwan surpassed North America as the region with the highest amount of spending, with $9.53 billion in equipment sales. Korea claimed the second place for the third year in a row with $8.67 billion in sales; North America fell to third on a decrease of 12%.

The global wafer processing equipment market segment decreased 18%; the assembly and packaging segment decreased 8%; and the total test equipment sales decreased 6%. Other front-end equipment sales grew 4%.

2012-2011 Semiconductor Capital Equipment Market by World Region

In US billions; percentage year-over-year