The current slump in the electronics market began in 2021. Smartphone shipments versus a year earlier turned negative in 3Q 2021. The smartphone market declines in 2020 were primarily due to COVID-19 related production cutbacks. The current smartphone decline is due to weak demand. According to IDC, smartphone shipments were… Read More
The global semiconductor market dropped 8.7% in 1st quarter 2023 versus 4th quarter 2022, according to WSTS. This was the steepest quarter-to-quarter decline since a 14.7% drop in 1Q 2019. 1Q 2023 was down 21.3% from a year earlier, the largest year-to-year decline in thirteen years since a 30.4% drop in 1Q 2009. Revenues of the … Read More
Electronics production continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the recovery is mixed by country. The chart below shows three-month-average (3/12) change versus a year ago in electronics production by local currency for key Asian countries. China was averaging about 10% growth prior to the pandemic. After… Read More
In the early stages of the global COVID-19 pandemic, most forecasters expected the semiconductor market to decline in 2020, including our May Semiconductor Intelligence projection of a 6% drop. However, the semiconductor market has shown surprising strength so far this year. WSTS reported the 2Q 2020 semiconductor market … Read More
Forecasts for 2018 semiconductor market growth have been revised upward from earlier in the year. In January to February 2018, projections ranged from 5.9% from Mike Cowan to our 12% at Semiconductor Intelligence. Forecasts released in March to June range from Gartner’s 11.8% to our 16%. The latest forecasts average an increase… Read More
The global semiconductor market grew 21.6% for the year 2017, according to World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS). The market was much stronger than anticipated at the beginning of year. Semiconductor Intelligence tracked publicly available forecasts to determine which was the most accurate. We used forecasts made … Read More
Semiconductor capital expenditures (cap ex) in 2017 will increase significantly from 2016. In August, Gartner forecast 2017 cap ex growth of 10.2% and IC Insights projected 20.2% growth. SEMI expects spending on semiconductor fabrication equipment will increase 37%. Cap ex growth is primarily driven by increased capacity… Read More
China has long been the largest market for semiconductors, accounting for over 50% of the global market for the last five years. China is now on track to become the largest semiconductor manufacturer in the next few years. The chart below shows China’s integrated circuit (IC) industry from 2010 to 2016, according to the China Semiconductor… Read More
Last week Renesas Electronics announced an agreement to acquire Intersil Corporation for US$3.22 billion. This follows July’s announcement that Analog Devices Inc. (ADI) will acquire Linear Technology Corp. (LTC) for $14.8 billion. These deals will cause a shakeup in the analog IC market. According to IC Insights ranking … Read More
The global semiconductor market has been on a decline (three-month-average change versus a year ago) since July 2015 according to World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS). Although numerous factors affect the semiconductor market (capacity and utilization, prices, inventory levels) in the near term, the long term growth… Read More
