Worldwide Computer-Chip Sales Growth to Accelerate, Report Says
San Jose, California, May 24 (Bloomberg) -- Worldwide sales of computer
chips are forecast to rise 13 percent this year, with growth surging to
17 percent in 2000 and 22 percent in 2001 on rising demand for personal
computers and consumer electronics, a research firm said.
Dataquest Inc. expects chip sales to reach $153 billion this year,
rising to $218 billion in 2001 and $244 billion by 2003. A key element
of the forecast is the assumption of a memory-chip shortage starting
in late 2000, resulting in a peak in memory sales in 2001, Dataquest
said. Dynamic random-access memory chips account for about 10 percent
of overall chip sales.
Tumbling memory-chip price and slowing PC demand have caused chip sales
to decline for two of the past three years. Now, semiconductor sales
are rebounding, helped by the advent of cheap PCs, more stable pricing
on memory chips, and the popularity of the Internet, Dataquest said.
''The three main drivers of the semiconductor market are PCs, consumer
electronics and communications equipment,'' said Joe Grenier, vice
president of Dataquest's semiconductor programs. ''Together they
account for about two-thirds of the total.''
The Americas will remain the single largest geographic region for
semiconductor sales, with sales expected to rise to $83 billion by
2003 from $51 billion in 1999. Asia Pacific sales will increase to
$58 billion in 2003 from $35 billion this year.
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