AUGUST 12--Global chip sales dropped 0.2% to $11.35 billion in June, according to the latest report released by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA; San Jose, CA.; www.semichips.org). Sales in May totaled $11.37 billion. On a quarterly basis, the June quarter was up 5.8% from the March quarter, according to the SIA.
"The semiconductor industry is continuing the recovery that started late last year and we are encouraged by the progress we have made pulling out of the 2001 downturn," said SIA President George Scalise. "While computer and computer-related sector demand is lagging, wireless and consumer sectors continue to strengthen. These two leading sectors are stimulating strong sales in flash, digital-signal processors, application-specific products, discretes, and analog, all of which increased by double-digits rates in the June quarter."
In July, strong growth in the digital consumer sector led the sales increase in Japan, while the Asia-Pacific markets continue to benefit from outsourcing for board-level and box manufacturing, which is especially strong in China. Sales in the Americas were impacted by the slowness of the recovery in the PC markets, the SIA said, while the shakeout and restructuring of the telecom markets, in addition to a slow PC market, has inevitability had a short-term effect on revenues in Europe.
