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Global chip sales will rise 19%, SIA says

Global semiconductor sales will rise 19 percent this year on higher demand for chips used in mobile devices, personal computers and recordable DVD players, the Semi-conductor Industry Association (SIA) said.

Semiconductor sales increased 18 percent to US$166.4 billion from US$140.8 billion last year, the San Jose, California-based industry group said in an e-mailed statement. Chip revenue jumped 28 percent in December from a year earlier, the group said.

"The industry's broad, upward momentum across all product sectors and geographic markets is driving us toward another year of strong, double-digit growth," SIA president George Scalise said in the statement.

Chipmakers have been benefiting from US economic growth and higher sales of mobile phones and consumer electronics. Intel Corp, the world's biggest maker of computer chips, in January predicted first-quarter sales will rise to as much as US$8.5 billion. Texas Instruments Inc, the largest maker of semiconductors that power mobile phones, last week said sales in the current quarter will gain more than analysts estimated.

Industry sales growth could beat the 19 percent prediction as consumers continue to buy mobile phones with features like cameras and audio players and companies begin to replace three and four-year-old computers, said Doug Andrey, an SIA analyst, on a conference call.

In the fourth quarter, global chip revenue rose to US$48.1 billion from US$43.3 billion in the third quarter. Memory chips and microprocessors used in PCs were the biggest contributors to growth in the period.
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