April 11, according to market research firm Gartner, in 2013 the total worldwide semiconductor capital equipment spending to reach $ 33.8 billion , representing a decrease of 11.5% last year .Demand for wafer-level manufacturing equipment is higher than the market average, mainly because of the strong performance of the lithographic printing and related processes , and the back- end manufacturing demand is far below the market average. Klaus Dieter Rinnen executive vice president of Gartner , said: " In this context , capital expenditure was weakened, but mainly from a few large manufacturers and memory -related spending growth resumed in 2013 , but that does not offset the decline in equipment sales . the impact despite increased investment in equipment manufacturing , and logic -related expenses , it was a negative factor . Accordingly , manufacturing equipment sales quarter on quarter growth rate began to decline over the outbreak of the fourth quarter, revenue is not sufficient to recover the full year sales income downward trend . "Applied Materials in the first row , it remains relatively strong in the coating and etching operations. In second place is still ASML, it remains strong in lithography . With a strong performance coating and etching operations , Lam Research rose to third place. With other Japanese manufacturers like Tokyo Electron also affected the yen fell sharply and customer buying patterns change. Rinnen said : "It is worth noting that the share of the top ten vendors of sales and further growth in 2012 has been increased from 68 % to 70% share of the top five vendors , and reached 57% , compared to the previous year . an increase of 5 percentage points . advantage of these big manufacturers will inevitably destined to fall into the plight of small manufacturers and equipment losses in the market will be increasingly concentrated in a few vendors fingertips . "In the back end of the field , all the expenses are substantially reduced. Because there is a big market uncertainty , several major semiconductor assembly and test services vendors have abandoned the order, so the fourth quarter of last year was particularly disappointing.