According to an announcement on Tuesday July 26 by ASM Pacific, China has surpassed Taiwan to become the company's largest market in the first six months of 2005, when sales in China reached US$43 million, growing to 23% of total sales, in comparison with 19.4% for the full year 2004. Taiwan accounted for 18.2% of sales in the first half of 2005. Also, the company stated that its net profit fell 47.2% year-on-year in the first half of 2006 to HK$323.6 million, while revenue dropped 36.1% year-on-year to HK$1.46 billion. Growth of the Chinese semiconductor market is expected to far outpace growth of the global market.