Recovery nears as March chip sales fall, report says
Looking optimistically towards a fourth-quarter recovery, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) yesterday reported that...
The SIA report showed decreases in chip sales across every semiconductor product sector and in most geographic regions.
Worldwide sales of semiconductors fell by 4.5% to $14.4bn (£10.06bn) in March, down from $15.07bn a year earlier, according to SIA.
"Since last November, we have witnessed worldwide semiconductor sales continually decline due to an inventory overhang and macroeconomic factors," said SIA president George Scalise, who tempered the grim news with optimism.
"We continue to believe that the industry will complete the inventory correction in the third quarter [2001], and the recovery will commence in the fourth quarter," Scalise said.
A regional snap shot for March showed US chip sales down 10.6%, European sales falling 0.7%, and Asia-Pacific sales down by 10.4%. Only Japanese chip sales enjoyed a climb, rising by 7% from March 2000, according to the SIA report.
