No surprises that Applied Materials continued to lead the semiconductor equipment sales in 1Q10. The company’s IC manufacturing equipment and related service revenues increased 43% in the first quarter, the highest growth among major WFE suppliers. However, the market research firm noted that Teradyne achieved the highest growth in 1Q among the top 10 suppliers, driven by strong demand of its SOC test systems. Overall the semiconductor equipment market grew 43% in the first quarter, reaching U$10.4B in sales, naturally a significant recovery from the 2009 recession.
Tokyo Electron also saw sales climb strongly in the quarter, up 36% and retained its small lead of third placed ASML. The leading lithography supplier is recovering fast and posted growth of 329% Y-on-Y, the highest of top 10 OEM’s.
VLSI Research also noted that European equipment suppliers experienced high growth rates on a Euro basis, but significant Euro/$ exchange rate shift impacted to their revenue conversion to US dollars negatively.
VLSI Research now expects semiconductor equipment sales to reach US$47.6B in 2010 a 95.8% growth from 2009.