With its finger on the pulse of silicon-related activities worldwide, the San Jose, Calif.-based Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said Wednesday
that semiconductors sales rose this past November to $10.6 billion, 1.6 percent from the $10.4 billion the industry posted in
October.
This spot of good news in what has been a gloomy sector marks the second month in a row chips have seen growth. This could mean the
number of PCs, wireless devices and other chip-intensive products being sold has increased. However, November is considered the
start of the holiday season, so that very well could have made the difference.
“Our forecast released in November calls fourth quarter sales to be 4.7% higher than the third quarter and with two months of data
now in, we are on target to meet that projection,” George Scalise, SIA president, said.
However, a key point of fact to note is that while sales in the European market ballooned a hearty 5.3 percent from October to
November, figures in the Americas experienced a .5 percent decline, from $2.51 billion to $2.5 billion. Japan was down slightly at 1
percent.
Just how far has the semiconductor sector fallen in a year’s time? Last year at this time, the Americas posted sales of $5.6
billion, a near 55 percent plummet. The worldwide chip sales drop-off was a weighty 42 percent.
The statistics were culled in SIA’s Global Sales Report (GSR), which is tabulated by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS)
organization, representing some 66 companies.