14 DAY TRIAL // Even though there are still so-called uncertain condition in some markets, it seems that the chip industry did well for itself during the month of August, even exceeding $25 billion in total sales, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.
The semiconductor industry is one that depends on many factors, mostly related to how well demand fares on the PC and consumer electronics fronts.
Nevertheless, during August at least, the total sales figure amounted to what can be seen as $1.8% more than what July delivered. Back then, to total of sales brought in was $25.2 billion.
During August, that figure was surpassed, as sales reached $25.7 billion, which corresponds to a jump of 32.6 percent over the $19.4 billion that last year's August accomplished.
"Semiconductor sales have been strong with August marking the sixth consecutive month of sequential growth," said SIA President Brian Toohey.
"PC and wireless related products along with infrastructure expansion in emerging markets, particularly in China and India, continue to drive sales. Concerns about economic conditions in the U.S. and Europe, coupled with seasonal patterns, bear close monitoring," he added.
For those interested in further numbers, the sales for the first eight months of 2010 were of $194.6 billion.
This sum is 44.4 percent higher than the $134.7 billion that the same period of 2009 accomplished.
The largest sequential growth during August was managed by Japan, whose 4.1 percent places it well ahead of the Americas and Asia.
Nevertheless, the latter two still performed admirably, boasting sequential increases of 2 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.
As expected, Europe suffered from an acute slowdown in demand for personal computers which, in turn, reduced semiconductor sales.
As such, the growth managed was of 0.1 percent. SIA will release an updated semiconductor forecast on November 4.
“We remain confident in our $290.5 billion forecast, which represents 28.4 percent annual growth for 2010,” Toohey concluded.