SIA, WSTS expect flat chip sales in 2012

SIA, WSTS expect flat chip sales in 2012

SAN FRANCISCO—The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said Tuesday (June 5) it officially endorsed a forecast by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) group that calls for chip sales to increase less than 1 percent in 2012.

The WSTS forecast calls for sales to hit $301 billion this year, up 0.4 percent from 2011, SIA said. But the forecast calls for chip sales to grow 7.2 percent to reach $322 billion in 2013 and another 4.4 percent to $337 billion in 2014.

WSTS said it gathered representatives from major semiconductor companies in Canada to participate in its spring 2012 forecast meeting. The consensus was that 2012 is expected to be relatively weak for chip sales, with the Asia Pacific region expected to weight down worldwide growth, WSTS said.

Last year the world's largest semiconductor vendor, Intel Corp., withdrew from participating in the WSTS trade statistics program after rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. stopped participating.

Europe may also see chip sales decline for the second consecutive year due to overall regional economy, WSTS said. The Americas region is expected to show healthier growth, WSTS said.

In terms of product categories, optoelectronics semiconductors is expected to grow the most in 2012, projected to increase by 13.6 percent from 2011, WSTS said, though it did not quantify the growth expectation. The organization said most major IC categories are expected to see little growth this year.


Click on image to enlarge.
Within product categories, Optoelectronics semiconductor is the highlight among others. Most major IC categories see little growth this year.

Also Tuesday, the SIA said semiconductor sales through April were down nearly 6 percent compared to the same period of 2011, despite a sequential increase in April.

The three-month rolling average of semiconductor sales hit $24.1 billion in April, up 3.4 percent from the previous month, SIA said Tuesday (June 5). It was the biggest one month improvement in chip sales in nearly two years, SIA said.

But April chip sales were down 2.9 percent from $24.8 billion in April 2011, SIA said. Through April, global chip sales totaled $93.7 billion, down 5.9 percent from $99.5 billion for the first four months of 2011, according to the organization. .

"The outlook for the global semiconductor industry continues to be one of cautious optimism," said Brian Toohey, SIA president and CEO, in a statement. "We are beginning to see an encouraging trend of modest, sequential growth and we anticipate this trend will continue during the rest of this year, with stronger growth predicted for 2013 and beyond. But that optimism continues to be tempered by macroeconomic factors."

April's chip sales were up sequentially 5.6 percent in the Americas region, 5.4 percent in the Asia Pacific region and 1.8 percent in Europe on a three-month average basis, SIA said. But sales in Japan declined 1.8 percent from March on a three-month average basis, SIA said.

The SIA also Tuesday (June 5) officially endorsed the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization's spring 2012 global semiconductor sales forecast, which calls for growth of less than 1 percent in 2012 compared to 2011.


TAG:SIA WSTS Semiconductor Forecast Report