July chip sales point to a strong Q3, says SIA
By Peter Clarke
Silicon Strategies
09/02/2003, 5:57 AM ET
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- July's global semiconductor sales revenue of $12.905 billion, a 10.5 percent increase from July 2002 revenue of $11.68 billion, was larger than the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) expected, and indicated the third quarter of 2003 would exceed the 5.9 percent quarterly sequential growth previously predicted, the SIA said Tuesday (September 2, 2003).
The SIA's Global Sales Report (GSR) is a three-month moving average of monthly sales activity. The GSR is tabulated by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization. The numbers are presented as a three-month moving average of monthly sales activity, and are constructed in that way to smooth variations due to companies' sales reporting calendars (see September 1 story). PC-related products were the strongest in July with microprocessors up 5.6 percent and DRAMs up 8.2 percent over June, which the SIA attributed to the start of a business replacement cycle coinciding with equipment building for the back-to-school market. Chip manufacturing capacity utilization at the leading edge has reached 94 percent, the SIA asserted.
"July's sales reflect the continued strengthening of the semiconductor market and we believe that we will exceed our forecasted sequential growth of 5.9 percent for the third quarter," said George Scalise, SIA president, in a statement. "With seasonal third quarter patterns, such as consumer builds for back-to-school and the year-end holidays, we expect sequential increases from the consumer, computation, and communications sectors." The consumer sector, which includes DVDs and digital cameras, continued its recent strength with optoelectronics increasing 5.3 percent and flash memory up 5.7 percent over last month. "We believe that excess inventory in the supply chain is now negligible and in-line with normal patterns," Scalise added. |
