Global Semiconductor Sales, Up 17 Percent Quarter-on-Quarter

The worldwide slow global economy continues to take its toll on the IT market, according to the latest market report from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), which has just announced that the year-on-year global semiconductor sales for Q2 were down 20 percent. Fortunately, the market saw a 17 percent increase quarter-on-quarter. Despite the low results, there's a general view that things are going for the better, with more optimistic forecasts, compared to the estimations made earlier this year.

“The fourth-consecutive monthly increase in sales is one indicator the industry is returning to normal seasonal growth patterns,” said SIA President George Scalise. He added that focused supply chain management by both producers and customers helped moderate the impact of the global economic recession on the industry. “Inventories have been closely managed, encouraging us to believe that the sequential increase in quarterly sales represents a gradual recovery of demand.”

According to the report, the worldwide sales of semiconductors for the second quarter of 2009 were at US$51.7 billion, which represents a 17 percent increase from the first quarter, when sales were at US$44.2 billion. In addition, in June, worldwide sales were of US$17.2 billion, representing a 3.7 percent increase from May, when sales were at US$16.6 billion. However, the year-on-year results were 20 percent lower for the first quarter, while in the first six months of the year worldwide sales of semiconductors were down 25 percent, compared to 2008.

There's a general optimism about the market, with updated forecasts for the end of the year. “Consensus estimates for unit sales of PCs are now in the range of minus 5 percent to flat compared to 2008, whereas earlier forecasts were projecting year-on-year unit declines of 9 to 12 percent. In cell phone handsets, analysts now believe the unit decline will be in the range of 7 to 9 percent compared to earlier forecasts of a decline of around 15 percent. PCs and cell phones account for nearly 60 percent of worldwide semiconductor consumption,” Scalise added.