October 28, 2005 – A new forecast from World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) sees 2005 shaping up about as expected since the previous forecast in the spring, but 2006 is looking brighter due mainly to more demand for memory products.

WSTS data projects overall 2005 chips sales of $227.060 billion, barely tweaked from the WSTS’ earlier forecast in May, as now-higher sales of memory chips (initially seen flat year-on-year, but now expected to grow 2.7% to $48.40 billion) and analog (initially down 2.7%, but now seen roughly flat at $31.48B) are offset by slightly smaller sales of microprocessors and logic chips as well as discrete semiconductors.

Geographically, WSTS sees better-than-expected sales in the Asia-Pacific (+16.2% Y-Y growth to $103.14 billion) and Americas regions (+2.2% to $39.94 billion), while Japan sales have been sluggish — originally expected to rise 3.3% to $47.26 billion, but now seen declining 2.8% Y-Y to $44.49 billion. European sales also have underperformed in 2005, expected to grow in 2005 (+5.2%, to $41.46 billion), but now seen approximately flat with 2004 levels at $39.49 billion.

WSTS data projects next year’s chip sales will be better than anticipated, up 8.0% vs. 5.2% to $245.25B, due largely to continued growth in the memory segment (5.9% to $51.27B) and logic (+7.9% to $62.06B), with sales increasing in all regions except Europe. Chip sales in 2007 are seen growing at about the same clip as earlier projections (10.6%) to $271.21B, with double-digit gains in all product sectors, and 8%-12% growth by regions.