Flat June chip sales up 10% y-on-y, says SIA
Peter Clarke
08/04/2003 5:19 AM EST
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Worldwide sales of semiconductors totalled $12.54 billion in June, up less than 1 percent from $12.50 billion in May 2003 and up 10.4 percent from $11.35 billion in June 2002, according to Global Sales Report (GSR) figures released by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) on Monday (August 4, 2003).
The GSR is a three-month moving average of sales activity constructed in that way to smooth variations due to companies' sales reporting calendars.
By adding these three month's moving averages the SIA shows second quarter chip sales of $37.6 billion were up 3.2 percent from $36.4 billion in the year's first quarter, and up 10.4 percent from the $34.1 billion recorded in the second quarter of 2002.
"In June, we forecast 3.2 percent growth for the second quarter and steadily increasing growth throughout the year, and that is exactly what we are seeing," said SIA president George Scalise, in a statement. "As predicted, the recovery is broad-based, and now is beginning to draw strength from computation, the largest end market for semiconductors, as well as the global consumer and communications sectors."
During the quarter ending in June, sales of computers rose almost 8 percent on a unit basis year-over-year, the strongest growth since 2002, supporting an 8.2 percent growth in microprocessors, the SIA said. In the wireline sector, demand for broadband services such as DSL and cable products contributed to a 27.1 percent increase in programmable logic devices. Sales of optoelectronics were up 33.9 percent and flash memory was up 37.1 percent year-over-year, the SIA asserted.
Capacity utilization on the leading edge has reached 96 percent. Excess inventory in the supply chain is now at negligible levels with very few exceptions. "Now that inventory has been worked off, increasing demand as the year progresses will directly generate rising semiconductor sales," Scalise stated.
The SIA commented that in the June quarter, sales in Japan rose 5.3 percent on a quarter-over-quarter basis, Asia Pacific was up 5.9 percent, and Americas was up 3.6 percent, while sales in Europe declined by 4.1 percent due to sluggish economic growth in Europe and outsourcing of production to Asia.
The 2003-2006 midyear forecast released by the SIA in June projects a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.8 percent over the forecast period. Annually, worldwide semiconductor sales are forecast to increase 10.1 percent in 2003, 16.8 percent in 2004, 5.8 percent in 2005, and 7.0 percent in 2006, to reach $205 billion (see June 27 story) |
