According to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), sales of semiconductors shot up 13.2% globally in the first-quarter from last year’s numbers.
Sales jumped to $55.3 billion from last year’s $48.9 billion.
“Worldwide sales of semiconductors continued to outpace forecasted levels in the first quarter of 2005,” said George Scalise, president of the SIA. “The first quarter is historically a relatively weak one for the microchip industry. The unexpected strength of semiconductor sales, with 13 percent growth over a very strong period a year ago, is a good sign for the industry.”
According to InformationWeek:
The SIA’s Global Sales Report (GSR) is tabulated by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization as a moving three-month average to reduce the swings due to reporting effects from different companies. And as a result the three-month average for March also measures the “actual” sales for the first quarter, which were therefore also up 13.2 percent.
Wireless handset, PC, and consumer electronics sales were higher than anticipated and played a big part in the quarter’s semiconductor sales.
“Consumer spending on electronics was stronger than historical patterns for the first quarter despite reports of declining consumer confidence,” Scalise said. “Overall GDP growth of 3.1 percent in the first quarter reflects underlying strength of the U.S. economy, although this number was slightly lower than the 3.5 percent growth expected by some economists.”
“We expect sales in the current quarter will be flat to nominally higher than the first quarter. As we reported last month, our earlier projection for flat sales for the year as a whole now appears to have been overly cautious,” Scalise concluded.
The SIA plans to release an updated forecast on June 8.
Chris is a staff writer for murdok. Visit murdok for the latest ebusiness news.
