June 6, 2002–Redwood City, CA–Coming on the heels of the worst downturn in the history of semiconductors, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) has released its mid-year forecast. The good news is that the SIA predicts sales of semiconductors to increase by 3.1 percent in 2002.

"Last year was the most difficult and challenging year in the history of the semiconductor industry," said SIA board member, Dwight W. Decker. "So far this year, we have seen a significant decline in excess inventory and manufacturing capacity, and the industry has resumed modest sequential growth, indicating that we are in the initial stages of a recovery. Our expectation is that the recovery will gain momentum in the second half of the year and continue with strong growth through 2003 and 2004."

The SIA expects sales to accelerate to 23.2 percent in 2003 and 20.9 percent in 2004, with the Asia Pacific region forging the path to recovery followed by the Americas. "We currently believe that the semiconductor industry as a whole will grow significantly over the course of the next 10 quarters, driven by increased sales of cellular handsets and PCs, as well as digital consumer electronics," adds Decker.

For the year, Asia Pacific is the only region that will experience growth in 2002 with sales increasing 27 percent to $51 billion, and continued growth in 2003 of 25 percent to $63 billion. Meanwhile, sales in the Americas will decline four percent to $35 billion in
2002, and then grow 24 percent to $43 billion in 2003. Europe’s sales will decrease by two percent in 2002 to $30 billion and in 2003 the region’s sales will jump 22 percent to $36 billion. For its part, the Japanese market will decrease 14 percent to $28 billion in 2002 and increase 21 percent to $34 billion in 2003.