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Semiconductor sales for February fall across all regions |
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Apr 02, 2007 at 12:56 PM |
 The SIA has released figures for worldwide semiconductor sales for the month of February, which show an average decline of 6.5 percent compared to January. Sales reached $20.09 billion in February compared to $21.48 billion in January, though sales were up 4.2 percent from the same period in 2006.
Once again, the SIA acknowledged that the price war in the microprocessor market was having an adverse effect on the industry overall. Though seasonal pressures were evident, the SIA noted that unit shipments as well as total sales of microprocessors were down in February. This was also true of DSP chips, according to the SIA.
"Year-on-year, we see evidence of the fiercely competitive market conditions - across the board unit sales in key products increased, while ASPs declined," noted SIA President George Scalise. "Unit sales of microprocessors were up almost 8 percent while ASPs declined 15 percent, and NAND flash units grew by over 40 percent while experiencing a nearly 50 percent drop in ASPs. These products tend to be indicators of conditions in important end markets such as personal computers and consumer devices," Scalise continued. "Personal computers and consumer products now account for approximately 60 percent of semiconductor sales. Both competitive conditions and product mix issues appear to be affecting revenues of these key components."
Capacity utilization also fell quarter-on-quarter, reaching 86.8 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with 88.9 percent in the third quarter of 2006. The SIA said that foundries took the brunt in falling utilization rates.
Sales declined in all regions for the month of February. America (8.3 percent) and Asia-Pacific (7.7 percent) declined the most.
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