While the US Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reports today that worldwide semiconductor sales in April were up 2.2% on March, WSTS (World Semiconductor Trade Statistics) reports that European semiconductor sales grew only 0.5% compared to March.
“Global sales of semiconductors grew at a healthy rate in April, surpassing the previous monthly record level of November 2007,” says SIA President George Scalise, “as expected, both the year-on-year and sequential growth rates moderated slightly. The unusually high year-on-year comparison is a reflection of the trough of the recession in early 2009 compared to strong demand today.”
Worldwide, according to the SIA, April 2010 sales of $23.6bn were up 50.4% on April 2009 when sales were $15.7bn.
Worldwide semi sales for the first four months of 2010 were $92.6bn compared to $60.1bn for the like period of 2009, an increase of 54.2%.
“Important contributors to current growth of semiconductor sales include the worldwide adoption of 3G wireless communications and consequent investment in infrastructure and recovery of demand from the enterprise, automotive, and industrial sectors,” says Scalise, “going forward, we expect semiconductor sales will return to historical seasonal patterns. Future growth of the industry remains heavily dependent on the continued global economic recovery, and in particular, on continued growth in the developing markets that are the largest demand drivers for our products,” Scalise concluded.
WSTS stated that European semiconductor sales in April 2010 amounted to $3bn – up 42.5% on April 2009 although only up 0.5% on March. That was a big slowdown compared with the 7.1% rise in March on February.
Measured in Euro, European semiconductor sales were €2.285bn in April 2010, up 2.4% on the previous month and up 37.1% versus the same month a year ago.
European market’s 7.1% rise in March compared to February.
On a YTD basis European semiconductor sales increased by 35.9% in 2010 versus the same period in the year 2009.
On a worldwide basis, semiconductor sales in April 2010 were $23.579bn, says WSTS, up 2.2% on March.
This results in an increase of 50.4% versus the same month in 2009, says WSTS, and on a YTD basis it results in an increase of 54.2%.
