Semiconductor YoY sales growth encouraging

WASHINGTON, USA: The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing US leadership in semiconductor manufacturing and design, announced that worldwide sales of semiconductors were $24.7 billion for the month of April 2011, a 2.2 percent decline from the prior month when sales were $25.2 billion, and an increase of 3.9 percent from April 2010 when sales were $23.7 billion. All monthly sales numbers represent a three-month moving average.

"Although month-over-month sales saw a slight decline, we remain optimistic given that the industry has increased sales compared to the same month last year," said Brian Toohey, president, Semiconductor Industry Association. "We expect moderate growth to continue through the remainder of the year."

The month-over-month results are slightly below seasonal patterns in part due to the natural disaster in Japan. The industry continues to mitigate the impact through successful supply chain recovery efforts and should see significant improvement reflected in the second half of 2011. Semiconductor industry, year-to-date growth continues to trend higher than the national GDP and in 2010 hit a record-breaking $298 billion in worldwide annual revenue.

Overall, higher fuel and food costs have led to a decrease in consumers' discretionary funds. This trend could be a factor in the overall softening of growth across all US-based manufacturing industries. The SIA will release an updated Semiconductor Growth Forecast for 2011-2014 from the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization in early June.Source: Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), USA.