From Tomorrow's WSJ:
January 2, 2001
Computer-Chip Sales Climb 31%,
But Intel Loses in Market Share
By MOLLY WILLIAMS
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Computer-chip industry sales rose 31% last year, driven by roaring
demand for the semiconductors used in mobile devices such as cell phones
and handheld organizers and in the gear that underpins the Internet, a
research group said.
Industry leader Intel Corp., however, lost market share and posted the
slowest growth among the top 10 makers of semiconductors, mostly
because of its heavy reliance on the not-quite-so-buoyant
personal-computer market.
Overall, chip sales in 2000 rose to $222.1
billion from $169.1 billion in 1999, according
to Dataquest Inc., a market-research
company in San Jose, Calif.
"Communications drove the market," said Joe
D'Elia, Dataquest analyst. "It's a combination
of communications at the personal level -- cell phones and other devices --
and the Internet infrastructure." For much of the year, memory chips were
also in hot demand.
The research company expects growth in the low 20% range for this year,
mostly because of slowing PC demand and some excess inventories of
other products that use chips, including phones and networking equipment.
Dataquest said the current weakness in the chip market isn't a long-term
worry, since demand is expected to remain strong. The short-term slowing
is mostly due to companies working off high inventories that accumulated
when the end of 2000 turned out to be disappointing. Still, Mr. D'Elia said
first-quarter performance for the industry will be a crucial indicator next
year, especially if there is a world-wide economic slowdown that crimps
spending.
Intel, Santa Clara, Calif., was still by far the largest maker of chips, with
13.4% of the total market. That was down, however, from its 15.8%
market share in 1999, Dataquest said. Intel's sales rose only 11% for the
year to $29.8 billion.
That compares with sales of $11.2 billion, growth of 47.2%, for the No. 2
chip maker, Toshiba Corp. of Japan. NEC Corp., also of Japan, was No.
3 with 20% growth to $11.1 billion and Korean chip giant Samsung
Electronics Co. was No. 4 with sales rising 52% to $10.8 billion. All three
Asian chip makers benefited from heavy demand for memory chips. The
fastest growing chip maker last year was STMicroelectronics NV of
France, which jumped to the No. 7 slot from No. 9 in 1999 on the
strength of sales that rose 57% to $7.9 billion.
The Americas region remained the largest chip market in the world,
accounting for sales of $71.7 billion, up 29% from 1999. Asia/Pacific,
excluding Japan, was the second-largest market, with sales of $56.9
billion. Japan came in third with sales of $50.4 billion. Europe had $43.1
billion in sales.
Write to Molly Williams at molly.williams@wsj.com |
