Global semiconductor sales fell nearly 30 percent in March compared with a year ago, but improved slightly over the previous month, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said on Friday.
Worldwide sales of semiconductors hit US$14.7 billion in March, down 29.9 percent from a year ago as the global recession continued to take a big bite out of the computer chip industry, the trade association said.
It said sales for the first quarter fell to US$44 billion from US$62.8 billion during the same period last year, and US$52.2 billion in the fourth quarter of last year.
The trade association said that while sales were down year-on-year, March sales of US$14.7 billion were a 3.3 percent improvement on February sales of US$14.2 billion.
“The modest sequential rebound in worldwide sales in March suggests that demand has stabilized somewhat, albeit at substantially lower levels than last year,” SIA president George Scalise said.
“There are some bright spots such as ‘smartphones’ and ‘netbook’ PCs, but there are no clear signs of early firming of demand in other major end markets such as automotive, corporate information technology, and consumer electronics,” he said.
“The global chip industry continues to reflect the influence of the worldwide economic slowdown,” Scalise said.
“We expect economic stimulus measures in the US combined with other countries will begin to impact sales as we enter 2010,” he added.
Market research firm Gartner said last month that worldwide semiconductor revenue fell by more than 5 percent last year and could face a “far worse” decline this year.
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