LONDON – The three-month average for global chip sales was $24.74 billion in December, down 3 percent from $25.51 billion in November a number which was revised down from $25.73 billion, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.
As a result global chip sales for 2012 reached $291.6 billion, a decrease of 2.7 percent from $299.5 billion in 2011. This was slightly ahead of the $290 billion annual total for 2012 predicted by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization in November 2012. WSTS forecasts the global chip market will grow by 4.5 percent in 2013.
The December averaged number came in below the $25.2 billion forecast of Bruce Diesen, analyst with investment bank Carnegie AS. It was, however, up 3.8 percent on the equivalent figure in December 2011.
Monthly data is given by the SIA as a three-month average although the source of the data, the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics organization, tracks actual monthly data. The SIA and other regional semiconductor industry bodies opt to use averaged data because it smoothes out the actual data that typically show troughs at the beginnings of the quarters and peaks at the ends of the quarters.
"Recent momentum, led by strength in the Americas, has the industry well-positioned for a successful 2013," said Brian Toohey, CEO of the SIA, in a statement.
Logic was the largest semiconductor category, reaching $81.7 billion in 2012, a 3.7 percent increase compared to 2011. Microprocessors ($60.2 billion) and memory ($57 billion) rounded out the top three segments, but both lagged behind 2011 sales totals. Optoelectronics was the fastest growing market on a yearly basis, increasing 13.4 percent in 2012 to reach $26.2 billion for the year. NAND flash grew at the second-fastest rate of 4.1 percent to reach $25.4 billion in 2012.
Click on image to enlarge.Global three-month averaged chip sales for December 2012 by region in U.S. dollar billions. Source SIA. Regionally, the Americas continued to show signs of strength, increasing sales by 12 percent in 4Q12 compared to 3Q12. Sales in Asia Pacific during December also increased compared to the same month in 2011 (6.7 percent), while sales in Europe fell by 5.5 percent and in Japan sales decreased by 11.2 percent over the same period.
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