SEMI (Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International) projects that the worldwide sales of new semiconductor manufacturing equipment will increase 15.2% to reach US$43.76 billion in 2015, according to United Evening News on December 11. In particular, Taiwan is expected to remain as the world's largest spender with US$12.3 billion (up 28.1% year on year) to be spent on semiconductor equipment next year, followed by Korea's US$8.0 billion (up 25.0% YoY) and North America's US$7.5 billion (down 9.7% YoY). SEMI Taiwan reckons that Taiwan's growth in semiconductor equipment expenditure is mainly boosted by foundry, DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory), and semiconductor packaging and testing vendors.