Equipment Industry Nearly Doubled in 2000
Laura Peters, Senior Editor -- Semiconductor International, 3/1/2001
The semiconductor equipment industry can look back on the year 2000 with great pride, as the top 10 companies accomplished phenomenal growth of 86% for the first time, with each company reporting sales in excess of $1B. The ranking, tracked annually by VLSI Research Inc. (San Jose), shows across-the-board doubling of key indicators nearly double average equipment sales, doubling of the number of companies exceeding $1B since 1999, and a doubling of growth rate when compared with the semiconductor industry growth of 34%, which brought device revenues of >$170B.Applied Materials was once again the largest supplier, a position it has held since 1992. Its closest rival, Tokyo Electron Ltd., enjoyed a sales gain of 95% this year, making it one of two companies with sales exceeding $5B.
Dainippon Screen and Advantest achieved the highest sales growth in the Top 10 115% and 95%, respectively.
Dainippon Screen returned to the Top 10 list for the first time since 1996. Overall, sales growth for European equipment companies, including ASM Lithography and ASM International, was lower than their U.S. and Japanese counterparts. This is reflected, however, in the 13% decline in value of the Euro against the U.S. dollar. For instance, ASML's sales growth on a Euro basis was 82.5%, but only 58% based on the dollar.
Novellus just missed making the Top 10 list, with sales of $1.38B and growth of 134%.
| Top 10 Equipment Suppliers to the Semiconductor Industry | ||||
| 2000 Rank | 2000 Revenues ($B) | Company | 1999 Rank | |
| 1 | 10.41 | Applied Materials | 1 | |
| 2 | 5.14 | Tokyo Electron Ltd. | 2 | |
| 3 | 2.43 | Nikon Corp. | 3 | |
| 4 | 2.04 | Teradyne Inc. | 5 | |
| 5 | 2.02 | ASM Lithography | 4 | |
| 6 | 2.00 | KLA-Tencor | 6 | |
| 7 | 1.87 | Advantest | 7 | |
| 8 | 1.63 | Lam Research Corp. | 8 | |
| 9 | 1.42 | Canon Inc. | 10 | |
| 10 | 1.39 | Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co. Ltd. | 11 | |
