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.
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