Global semi sales grow at fastest rate in almost 2 years

This marks the largest month-over-month growth for the industry since May 2010. However, sales from April 2012 were 2.9 percent below the April 2011 total of $24.8 billion. Further, 2012 year-to-date sales totaled $93.7 billion, a decrease of 5.9 percent from the year-to-date figures at the same time last year ($99.5 billion). "The outlook for the global semiconductor industry continues to be one of cautious optimism," said Brian Toohey, president & CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. "We are beginning to see an encouraging trend of modest, sequential growth and we anticipate this trend will continue during the rest of this year, with stronger growth predicted for 2013 and beyond. But that optimism continues to be tempered by macroeconomic factors." On a regional basis, semiconductor sales increased in the Americas (5.6 percent), the Asia Pacific region (5.4 percent) and Europe (1.8 percent) over a three-month moving average, but fell slightly in Japan (-1.8 percent). Meanwhile, SIA today endorsed the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization's Spring 2012 global semiconductor sales forecast, which projects that the industry's worldwide sales will hit $301 billion in 2012 – a 0.4 percent increase over the 2011 sales total. Regionally, WSTS projects year-over-year growth in the Americas (3.2 percent), Japan (1.7 percent) and the Asia Pacific region (0.1 percent) for 2012, with a slight downturn in Europe (-3.5 percent). Beyond 2012, the industry is expected to grow at a significantly faster pace across all regions, according to the WSTS forecast. WSTS predicts 7.2 percent growth globally for 2013 ($322 billion in total sales) and 4.4 percent growth for 2014 ($337 billion). WSTS tabulates its annual forecast by convening an extensive group of global semiconductor companies that provide accurate and timely indicators of semiconductor trends.