Global chip sales accelerate in October
Last modified: November 28, 2003, 2:08 PM PST
By Reuters
October global sales of semiconductors showed their strongest month-on-month growth since March 2002, from strong demand for a wide range of electronics products, according to an industry survey released Friday.
Worldwide chip sales amounted to $15.4 billion, up 6.8 percent from September, according to data from the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization.
"The October WSTS data are amplifying the positive trends observed in the already strong third quarter," said the European Semiconductor Industry Association, which publishes WSTS data.
"Demand for semiconductors was strong all across the board, translating into generally high billings for commodity products as well as for application specific chips," it added.
Executives of semiconductor companies have said they usually wait for recovering sales of commodity chips before they call a broad and sustainable upturn of the market. Commodity chips were still flat during the summer months.
Fueling growth in October were chips for cars and personal computers and consumer products such as televisions, DVD players and mobile phones.
Global chip sales rose 23.3 percent versus the same month in 2002. On a year-to-date basis, growth was 16.4 percent.
Demand for chips has accelerated in recent months after a slow start to the year when the deadly SARS virus put a damper on Asian trade.
"We consider this announcement to be quite bullish, although not surprising given the strength reported over the last three months, and mid-teens growth for this year appears pretty much assured," Dan Scovel, an analyst at Needham & Co. in New York, wrote in a research note.
November is a seasonally strong month, while December typically declines, he noted.
The chip industry is showing signs of recovering from its worst-ever downturn, which began in 2001 amid a larger technology slump resulting from a sluggish overall economy and corporate spending cutbacks.
Earlier this month, the Semiconductor Industry Association raised its forecast for global 2003 chip sales growth to nearly 16 percent from an earlier forecast of 10 percent. |
