JANUARY 6--Global semiconductor sales reached $12.68 billion in November, a 1.3% sequential increase from the $12.51 billion in revenue reported in October, continuing the trend that began in 4Q01, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA; www.semichips.org). November sales are up 19.6% from November 2001 sales of $10.6 billion. "November sales of the global chip industry underscore the healthy recovery that has been building momentum throughout this year," stated SIA president George Scalise. "The wireless sector continues to be the strongest single market."
The semiconductor products that benefit from the strength of the wireless sector are led by flash and digital-signal processors, which were up 6.6% and 3.7% in November, respectively. In addition, Wi-Fi has begun to contribute to the strength of this market. Furthermore, the computer segment continues to show growth, with microprocessors up 0.5% and DRAM increasing by 5.8%.
Chip sales rose 5.8% in November in the European market and 1.3% in Asia Pacific. Semiconductor sales in the Americas declined slightly by 0.8% and 0.6% in Japan.
