Worldwide Computer-Chip Industry to Rise 12% in 1999, SIA Says
Worldwide Computer-Chip Industry to Rise 12% in 1999, SIA Says
San Jose, California, June 8 (Bloomberg) -- Global semiconductor sales are expected to rise 12.1 percent this year, marking the first time the industry has posted double-digit growth since 1995, a trade group said.
Worldwide chip sales are expected to rise to $140.8 billion this year and surge 15.4 percent to $162.5 billion in 2000, the Semiconductor Industry Association said. Chip industry sales have declined for the past three years, and the last time growth was more than 9 percent was in 1995, when sales soared 42 percent.
The recovery is being led by sales of digital signal processors, which are specialized chips used in everything from cameras to computers, as well as memory chips, used mostly in personal computers. The industry was hammered in the past few years because of excess manufacturing capacity, slowing demand and plummeting prices. ''The greatest growth driver of them all is the rapid public acceptance of the Internet,'' said Wilfred Corrigan, an SIA board member and also chairman and chief executive of LSI Logic Corp. ''The electronic highway is paved with silicon chips.''
The memory market, which declined 19 percent in 1997 and 21 percent last year, will make a comeback by increasing 19 percent this year, the SIA said. The microprocessor market is forecast to rise 16 percent in 1999.
The U.S. market will remain the largest geographic region, representing about a third of chip revenue worldwide, and Asia- Pacific will be the second largest as it recovers from big declines during the economic turmoil in that region. |
