European semiconductor sales up 1.7 percent in May

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: Sales on the European semiconductor market grew 1.7 percent in May compared to the previous month, the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) reported yesterday. This is a slight pick up compared to 0.5 percent only in April.

The market surge continued unchanged, recording a very significant 43.8 percent increase in Europe in May 2010 compared to the same month in 2009.

In Europe, remarkable positive growth rates were observed for some of the main product categories on a three month rolling average. In particular optoelectronics (up 8.9 percent), discretes and MOS microcontroller need to be mentioned. Sales for memories grew in May as well: notably sales for DRAMs increased by 4.4 percent and total MOS SRAM grew by 10.8 percent.

Overall, European semiconductor sales in May 2010 amounted to $3.153 billion. On a YTD basis semiconductor sales continued their increase at 42.4 percent in 2010 versus the same period in the year 2009.

The exchange rate of the Euro compared to the US dollar has reversed its impact on the European sales picture in the last month. Measured in Euro, semiconductor sales were 2.386 billion Euros in May 2010, up 4.4 percent on the previous month and up 44.3 percent versus the same month a year ago. On a YTD basis semiconductor sales increased by 39.3 percent in 2010 versus the same period in the year 2009.

On a worldwide basis, semiconductor sales in May 2010 were $24.652 billion, up 4.5 percent versus the previous month. This results in an increase of 47.6 percent versus the same month in 2009 and on a YTD basis it results in an increase of even 52.3 percent.

Market data by regionSource: ESIA, Europe.