Chip Industry Had Worst Sales Year Since Dot-Com Bubble Burst

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The global semiconductor industry posted sales of US$412.1 billion in 2019, a decrease of 12.1% compared to the 2018 total, according to Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

 

Worldwide semiconductor sales reached US$36.1 billion in December, a decline of 5.5% compared to the December 2018 total and 1.7% less than the total from November 2019. Fourth-quarter sales of US$108.3 billion were 5.5% lower than the total from the fourth quarter of 2018, but 0.9% higher than the third quarter of 2019.

 

"Amid a confluence of factors, including ongoing global trade unrest and cyclicality in product pricing, worldwide sales of semiconductors were down considerably in 2019, falling 12% year-to-year," said John Neuffer, SIA president and CEO. "The global market rebounded somewhat during the second half of 2019, increasing slightly from Q3 to Q4, and modest annual growth is projected for 2020."

 

Several semiconductor product segments stood out in 2019, SIA indicated. Memory and logic were the largest semiconductor categories by sales, each totaling US$106.4 billion in 2019 sales.

 

Sales of memory products were down significantly in 2019 by dollar value, decreasing 32.6% compared to 2018. Memory unit volume increased slightly, however, SIA said. Within the memory category, sales of DRAM products decreased 37.1% and sales of NAND flash products decreased 25.9%. Not including sales of memory products, sales of all other products combined slipped 1.7% in 2019.

 

Micro-ICs (US$66.4 billion) - a category that includes microprocessors - was the third-largest product category in terms of total sales, SIA noted. Sales of optoelectronics products were a bright spot, increasing 9.3% in 2019.

 

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