March 5, 2007 – Worldwide sales of semiconductors remain on pace at 9% year-on-year growth, though they were also down ~1% from December along seasonal norms, according to data from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).
Global chip sales totaled $21.47 billion in January, down 1.2% from December but up 9.2% from a year ago. All regions saw a sequential decline, most notably in the US (-2.5%) and Japan (-2.2%). Year-on-year, growth was driven by the Asia-Pacific region (15.2%), with Europe (9.4%) keeping up with overall, and the US (-0.1%) and Japan (3.8%) lagging behind.
The three-month moving average slipped into the red in January, to -2.3% for the period Nov.-Dec.-Jan vs. the previous three months of Aug.-Sept.-Oct. 2006. Again, most of the decline was in the Americas (-7.1%) and Japan (-7.5%), likely due to a cooldown from the consumer-oriented holiday period, while the Asia-Pacific region (1.5%) managed to squeak out positive growth.
SIA president George Scalise pointed out that January’s semiconductor sales reflected typical seasonal patterns of strong Y-Y growth but a modest sequential decline. He noted consumer confidence is on the uptick, buoyed by recent gains in personal and disposable income.
DRAM sales led the way in total sales in January ($3.6 billion), up 72% Y-Y and 2.3% sequentially, probably spurred by the introduction of Microsoft’s Vista operating system that carries more system memory requirements.
Chip prices continue to slide, he added, benefiting PC users — desktop and laptop average selling prices fell more than 9% in 2006.
Scalise also noted that final tallies for cell phone shipments in 2006 exceeded estimates (1.02 billion shipments), and inventory concerns appear to have worked themselves out, paving the way for 10%-15% growth through 2007, and driving nearly $40 billion in semiconductor demand (based on average semiconductor cell phone content of $40/phone).
Chip sales, January 2007 (US $B)
Market……….Current month…….vs. prior month…….vs. year-ago
Americas……….3.71………………….-2.5%…………………-0.1%
Europe………….3.48………………….-0.4%………………….9.4%
Japan……………3.79………………….-2.2%………………….3.8%
Asia Pacific…..10.49…………………-0.7%………………..15.2%
TOTAL………….21.47…………………-1.2%………………….9.2%
Chip sales, three-month moving average (US $B)
Market………..Aug/Sep/Oct……..Nov/Dec/Jan……….% change
Americas…………3.99…………………..3.71…………………….-7.1%
Europe……………3.54…………………..3.48…………………….-1.7%
Japan……………..4.10…………………..3.79…………………….-7.5%
Asia Pacific…….10.34…………………10.49…………………….1.5%
Total………………21.97………………….21.47……………………-2.3%