Global semicon revenue to grow 20% in 2010

The global semiconductor market will touch a revenue of $276 billion in 2010, a 19.9 per cent increase over 2009 figures of $231 billion due to higher sales of personal computers and memory drives, an analyst firm Gartner said in a recent report.

Semiconductor market faced a slump in the first half of 2009 due to the global economic turmoil. However, on the back of rising sales of PC afterwards, semiconductor market is poised for strong growth.

“After the gloom early in the year, PC unit production growth actually turned out to be positive in 2009 and is expected to grow close to 20 per cent in 2010, fuelling the strength in semiconductors,” the report said.

The report also said that third quarter of 2009 was expected to witness a growth of 7 per cent, while the fourth quarter is expected to become flat. The third quarter of every calendar year is usually the strongest quarter for semiconductor sales with a sequential growth of 9 per cent as PC vendors build product for back-to-school and the holiday season, it said.

Gartner also expects rise in Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) revenue growth in 2010.

“Rising DRAM prices, coupled with strong PC demand, will lead to over 55 per cent DRAM revenue growth in 2010, making DRAM the fastest-growing device by far,” Bryan Lewis, research vice-president, Gartner said.

According to Gartner, the semiconductor industry is expected to show continued growth till 2014, with the global revenue crossing $300 billion in 2012.

However, the report expects a minor correction in the semiconductor sales in near future.

“We are closely tracking the balance of electronic system sales versus semiconductor sales and inventory in past downturns versus the present one, and believe that a minor correction is needed in the near future to re-balance chip sales with system sales,” the report said.