Worldwide Semiconductor Sales Surge 24% in September, SIA Says
San Jose, California, Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Worldwide sales of semiconductors surged 24 percent in September from a year ago, on higher sales of Internet-networking and communications chips, the Semiconductor Industry Association said.
September sales rose to $12.7 billion, the highest monthly total this year, the industry trade group said. That's a 6.4 percent increase from August. Sales rose in all four regional markets tracked by the San Jose, California-based SIA -- the Americas, Japan, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
The semiconductor market is expanding as the cellular-phone market booms and as robust Internet growth sparks sales of chip- intensive networking equipment.
''This month's global sales numbers are the largest we have seen all year, continuing the growth pattern that commenced in mid-1998,'' SIA President George Scalise said.
Sales in Japan and Asia rose the most from a year ago: 37.4 percent and 35.5 percent, respectively. Sales in the Americas rose 17 percent, and Europe grew 12.5 percent.
Last week, the association said it expects annual worldwide sales of semiconductors to rise 21 percent to $174 billion in 2000. Annual sales this year are expected to gain 15 percent over last year, to $144 billion. In 1998, they fell 8 percent.
In the most recent quarter, all chip areas had ''strong growth, which represents a broad-based recovery,'' SIA said. The market for flash memory -- chips that retain information even when the power in a device is turned off -- was up 35 percent. These chips are used in mobile phones, digital cameras and devices that play music downloaded from the Internet.
Sales of dynamic access memory chips (DRAM), the most common memory chips in personal computers, rose 14 percent for the quarter. Microprocessors, which are chips that control and perform logic functions in PCs and other devices, rose 15 percent.
Intel Corp. is the largest maker of microprocessors. Other makers include Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Motorola Inc. Among the largest makers of flash-memory chips are Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, Atmel Corp. and SanDisk Corp.
Nov/02/1999 13:14
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