The Republic of Korea (RoK) is expected to become the world’s top investor in semiconductor equipment in 2017 and the following year (Source: Yonhap) According to the report from Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI), 49.4 billion USD will be spent on semiconductor equipment this year, representing a year-on-year rise of 19.8 percent, and exceeding the previous record of 47.7 billion USD set in 2000.
The record will be broken again in 2018 with a jump of 7.7 percent to 53.2 billion USD, the report was quoted by Yonhap.
By country, the RoK’s investment in this sphere in 2017 is forecast to reach 12.97 billion USD, a year-on-year rise of 68.7 percent, surpassing the 12.73 billion USD of China’s Taiwan, which had been No.1 for the past five years.
The RoK is likely to remain the top investor in 2018 with 13.38 billion USD, while Taiwan will fall to the third place after China, which could spend 11.04 billion USD to upgrade its facilities, the report added.-VNA
VNA
