Global chip sales show September growth
By Peter Clarke, EE Times -- EDN, October 31, 2011
LONDON - The Japanese recovery and continued demand for mobile personal electronics helped the three-month average of worldwide sales of semiconductors in September reach $25.76 billion, according to the SIA (Semiconductor Industry Association) quoting figures compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics organization.The figures were better than had been expected after poor sales in July and a slight uptick in August, and allowed the third quarter actual sales to show a 2.1% increase over the second quarter.
Breakdown of September 2011 global sales by geography
Source: SIA. Note that figures in the first two columns are in dollar billions and are three-month averages not actual sales.*
Although the sequential growth was welcomed by the SIA it is
below what would be expected in a normal year. Over the previous 10 years the
third quarter has been the strongest growth quarter in the year averaging about
an 8% sequential increase.
The global chip sales figures were also better than had been
experienced in the foundry chip market where Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Co Ltd (Hsinchu, Taiwan) turned in a sequential third quarter decline of 3.6%.
On a year-to-date basis 2011 global chip sales to September
are up 2.2% on 2010, the SIA said.
"September's global sales demonstrate an optimistic
close to the third quarter," said Brian Toohey, president of the SIA, in a
statement. "While global economic uncertainty creates limited visibility
for the remainder of the year, recent positive indicators and developments in
the US and Europe are encouraging."
Japan's averaged sales for September were $3.80 billion. As
this is the average of July, August and September, multiplying the figure by
three gives the third quarter actual sales for Japan and this was a 13.7% sequential
increase driven by the efforts in recovery from a poor second quarter in the
aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011.*
Meanwhile demand remained strong for automotive electronics,
smartphones, tablet computers, and e-reader devices, the SIA said.
The SIA and the European Semiconductor Industry Association
publish monthly data as three-month-average figures. This makes the sales of
any given month the average of the sales for that month and the previous two
months. The SIA and ESIA prefer to present this data as it smoothes out the
actual data that usually show troughs at the beginnings of the quarters and
peaks at the ends of the quarters.
This story was originally posted by EE Times.
*Editor's Note: One day after these numbers were issued, the SIA confirmed that it mis-stated the quarterly sequential comparisons for Japan and the global semiconductor market in its statement of global semiconductor sales for September. Please see this story for the corrected statement.
