APRIL 9--February chip sales worldwide remained flat from January at $10.01 billion, according to the latest report from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA; www.semichips.org). Sales growth in the Asia-Pacific region and the Americas compensated for a dip in Europe and Japan, reported the SIA.
"Strong consumer spending for mobile phones, DVDs, and digital cameras continued to move chip sales slightly upward," noted SIA president George Scalise. "Although business investment has yet to pick up, consumer confidence and inventory replenishing continue to rise, driving the early stages of the overall recovery. Flat to slow growth of semiconductor sales in the first quarter of this year is in line with expectations. Our forecast calls for the second quarter to be slightly stronger with accelerating growth in the second half of 2002."
Scalise went on to note, "In February, total sales in the DRAM market rose almost 24% over January, as prices continued to recover from cyclical lows, a trend that was reflected in all regional sales figures."
On a month-to-month basis, sales in the Americas and Asia Pacific market accounted for approximately 60% of the global semiconductor sales with increases of 2% and 0.3% in February. Markets in Europe and Japan registered a slight dip in February, with sales down 1.5% and 1.2%, respectively.
