Chip sales up 3.8% in Q1 compared to Q107
(not bad at all considering the weakness in ASP)
John Walko
EE Times Europe
(05/01/2008 6:42 AM EDT)
LONDON — Global sales of semiconductors during the first quarter of 2008 came in at $63.4 billion, up 3.8 percent on the same period last year, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).
March sales of $21.1 billion were 3.4 percent higher than the $20.5 billion reported for February 2008.
Meanwhile Q1 sales were down 5.1 percent on the fourth quarter of 2007, which came in at $66.8 billion.
The SIA said the decline reflects a normal seasonal drop from the historically strong fourth quarter.
"Weakness in memory revenue as a result of rapid price erosion masks the overall strength of semiconductor sales," stressed SIA President George Scalise. "Excluding memory products, total semiconductor sales increased by a very healthy 11 percent year-on-year."
Scalise added sales were buoyed by growing consumer purchases of electronic products in world markets, more than offsetting the effects of a slowing U.S. economy. "Although semiconductor sales in the U.S. grew more slowly than overall worldwide sales, revenues in the first quarter of the year still registered growth of 2.3 percent versus the 3.8 percent growth worldwide year-on-year."
Referring to a recent Gartner report that suggested PC unit sales grew by 12 percent in the first quarter of 2008, reaching 71.1 million units, with strong sales outside the U.S. and slower sales in the U.S, Scalise stressed the U.S. market now accounts for approximately 21 percent of worldwide PC demand down from over 31 percent just five years ago.
"Strength in the PC market was reflected in sales of microprocessors, which increased by 13.4 percent year-on-year. Average selling prices for microprocessors declined by a modest 3.5 percent over the past year, while units were up by 17.4 percent," noted Scalise.
Personal computers are the largest single end market for semiconductors.
DRAM prices continued to be under pressure despite healthy growth in bit demand. DRAM sales declined by 37.4 percent year-on-year despite a 30.6 percent increase in unit shipments. ASPs declined by 52 percent not taking product mix into account.
According to Micron Technology, 512Mb DRAM, prices declined 73 percent year-on-year. Total DRAM bit shipments are expected to grow by 56 percent in 2008, according JP Morgan.
Sales of NAND flash memory revenue grew by 45.9 percent in the first quarter on unit shipments that increased almost 46 percent over last year. Prices remain under pressure, the SIA noted.
According to Micron, ASPs for 8Gb NAND were down 70 percent from March 2007. SIA noted that NAND flash is widely used in cell phones, MP3 players, digital cameras and other hand-held devices.
Unit shipments of cell phones, which account for 20 percent of semiconductor sales, increased by 14.3 percent year-on-year.
A recent report from Micron Technology underscores the rapid growth of semiconductor content in consumer electronic products, said Scalise. "Micron noted that the memory capacity of a typical PC has more than doubled from 2006 to 2008, to 1,817 MB on average this year.
The company also reported that the DRAM content of a typical handset has tripled from 12 MB to 36 MB, while the NAND content of a handset has increased by more than 1,300 percent to 412 MB this year." |
