March 2, 2003 – Strong growth in the Asia-Pacific and Japan regions continued to boost worldwide semiconductor sales during a typical down period in January 2004, according to data from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

January chip sales rose to $15.5 billion, down 3.0% from December, reflecting an expected seasonal decline, but with a year-on-year growth of 26.6% remaining steady with that of December. Nine out of 12 product categories were down slightly, while standard cells, analog, and programmable logic devices showed flat to modest growth, thanks to strength in the wired market.

Geographically, month-on-month sales increased more than 30% in the Asia-Pacific market (largely due to China’s influence) and Japan, with the Americas and Europe showing 15%-20% growth.

“With the exception of the boom year 2000, sales have been slightly lower in January than December” due to the industry’s seasonality, stated SIA president George Scalise. He reaffirmed the SIA’s prediction of 19.4% growth in chip sales for the full year 2004, with particular strength in the computation, communications, global consumer, and automotive markets.