The global semiconductor industry continues to show signs of recovery for the second month in a row, spurred on by sales of PCs, wireless products and other consumer goods, including technology for automotive products, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said Wednesday.
Worldwide sales of semiconductors in November rose to US$10.60 billion, up 1.6 per cent from October’s figure of US$10.44 billion, the SIA said in its monthly update of its quarterly global sales report.
The latest numbers indicate that SIA’s forecast in November of a 4.7 per cent increase in fourth-quarter sales over third-quarter sales are solidly on track, the industry association said.
In its last three-month moving average of sales activity, SIA forecasted slow growth throughout 2002 with a return to normal growth patterns of 21 per cent for the semiconductor market in both 2003 and 2004. Though the recovery will be tentative in the new year, the market is set to overcome its previous ills of excess inventory and weak demand, the SIA said.
Geographically in November, sales in the Americas were just about flat compared to October, while the market in Japan fell about 1 per cent. November sales saw increases of 5.3 per cent in the European market over October and 2.5 per cent in the Asia/Pacific market, the SIA said.
The SIA is based in San Jose, Calif., and is Web at http://www.semichips.org/.