According to a report from the Semiconductor
Industry Association, worldwide semiconductor sales in 2013 totaled $305.6
billion, hitting an annual record. This was an increase of 4.8% from 2012 sales
of $291.6 billion.
Brian Toohey, president and CEO of SIA,
reports that this is the first time that the global semiconductor industry
exceeded $300 billion in sales for the first time ever, spurred by robust sales
growth across nearly all regions and all product segments. Toohey notes that
the industry finished the year with the strongest December sales on record, an
indication that this momentum is likely to carry over to this year.
Toohey also adds that the semiconductor is
becoming ubiquitous and is present in many products, from the home, the car,
and mobiles. This indicates a favorable position for the semiconductor
industry.
The SIA report indicated that
total chip sales for the fourth quarter of 2013 came to $79.9 billion, which
was 7.7% higher than the $74.2 billion reported in the fourth quarter of the
previous year. In December 2013 alone, chip sales totaled $26.6 billion, which
was an increase of 17.3% from December 2012.
The American market showed the
biggest growth in sales, exhibiting an increase of 13.1% in its annual
semiconductor sales. Europe and the Asia Pacific region also showed increases
of 5.2% and 7.0%, respectively. However, sales in Japan actually suffered and
decreased by 15.2%, part of which is due to the devaluation of the Japanese
yen.
Falan
Yinug, SIA director of industry statistics and economic policy, says that Japan
has been artificially devaluating the yen in order to stimulate exports,
leading to lower sales in the Japanese market, but there could be better growth
this year. On the other hand, Europe’s sales had been suffering in 2012 and in
the first half of 2013, but the numbers showed that the market there is already
recovering.
Among the industry segments,
memory was the fastest growing with sales increasing 17.6% in 2013. DRAM
performed well in the memory segment, with its sales increasing by 33.3%, while
NAND flash also showed strong growth with an 8.1% increase. Optoelectronic
products and analog also showed positive growth, with annual sales increases of
5.3% and 2.1%, respectively.
It’s still too early to say
whether the record sales is significant in itself as semiconductor sales has
fluctuated yearly since 2008. However, even as industry sales remain cyclical,
the extreme numbers are slowing down and are being replaced by numbers
indicating small but steady growth as the semiconductor industry matures.
A Deutsche
Bank Market Research release expects that growth in the industry would
accelerate to 8% in 2014, but this projection has already been discounted by
many sectors within the industry itself, such as analog and PLDs.
In contrast, the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization forecast a more
consistent market growth for this year as well as in 2015, projecting sales of
up to $317 billion in 2014 and $328 billion by 2015.
About the Author- This article is contributed by Martini Tech Inc., a nanotechnology
company based in Tokyo, Japan and specialized in sputtering and thin-film deposition,
nanoimprint mold and replica, MEMS design and MEMS foundry services and
patterned sapphire substrates (PSS)
for LED applications.
No comments:
Post a Comment