A semiconductor industry downturn that began over the summer will be short lived, reaching its bottom in February 2012, according to a market analyst.
Speaking at Dongbu HiTek Co. Ltd.’s Analog Semiconductor Leaders Forum here last week, Jim Feldhan, president of Semico Research Corp., said the semiconductor industry supply chain pulled back and started burning inventory amid deteriorating macroeconomic conditions and declining consumer spending.
Feldhan said nervous OEMs are likely to continue burning inventory through the end of 2011 and into 2012. He predicted that the market would overreact to the slowdown in business, projecting that overall industry capacity utilization would slip to under 80 percent by the end of the year, down from more than 90 percent at the beginning of 2011.