Geez Louise, if I see more stories like this I may have to go on margin with my equipment stock investments.
Keep up the gloom! The doom!! The BLOOD!!!
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SIA backs off its 22% growth forecast; December sales slip.
Asia Pacific drops the most with 3.1% sequential decline in month, says new report
Semiconductor Business News (02/05/01 06:18 a.m. PST) SAN JOSE -- Worldwide chip sales hit a record $204 billion in 2000 despite revenues slipping 2.1% to $17.89 billion in December compared to $18.27 billion in November, said the Semiconductor Industry Association here today. The SIA also said the industry is now unlikely to reach the trade group's forecast of 22% sales growth in 2001 because of excess inventory at manufacturers and chip distributors.
The SIA is not expected to officially revise its 2001 sales forecast until the spring. Just three months ago, the U.S. trade group predicted that chip sales would remain relatively strong until 2002, when revenue growth would ease to 10%. The SIA predicted industry revenues would rise 22% to $249 billion in 2001 after growing 37% to $204 billion in 2000 (see Nov. 1 story).
In its new sales report issued today, the SIA said the 2.1% sequential drop in revenue during December was in line with normal year-end patterns. While sales slipped 2.1% month-to-month, December's $17.89 billion was 21.6% higher than a year ago, said the SIA, which uses a three-month moving average for revenues.
The Asia Pacific region--normally the fastest growth chip market--dropped 3.1% to $4.30 billion in December from $4.44 billion in November. The region's chip sales were up just 13.2% from $3.80 billion in December 1999, said the SIA report.
Japan was also hit by December's sales slump, which pushed ship revenues down 2.7% to $4.31 billion from $4.43 billion in November. But chip sales in Japan were up 31.5% from $3.28 billion in December 1999, the report said.
Europe's semiconductor sales dropped 2.0% to $3.73 billion in December from $3.80 billion in November, based on the SIA's three-month moving average. Compared to December 1999, chip sales in Europe grew 19.8% in December 2000 from $3.11 billion.
Semiconductor sales in the Americas--the world's largest chip market--were down just 0.9% to $5.55 billion in December from $5.60 billion in November. America's chip sales were up 22.8% compared to $4.52 billion in December 1999, said the SIA, which bases its monthly report on data tabulated by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization.
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