Gartner: Asia leads semicon recovery
Published: 18 Dec 2002 13:30 GMT
Following a drastic decline in 2001, research firm Gartner Dataquest said the worldwide semiconductor market, buoyed largely by Asia-Pacific, is back in the black this year.
Reflecting the increasing shift in electronic equipment production to Asia, Gartner said the region is the only one in the world to post growth this year with a sales boom of 24 percent.
Asia-Pacific, including China, is the largest regional semiconductor market, accounting for one-third of global sales, said Dorothy Lai, senior analyst at Gartner Asia-Pacific.
Strong consumer product shipments such as DVD players and digital TVs in Japan and Asia-Pacific have boosted revenues for Japanese vendors like Matushita, Sanyo and Sharp, Lai added.
According to Gartner, global semiconductor revenues totaled $155.4bn (£100bn) in 2002, a slim 1.4 percent increase from the previous year.
This compares with a drastic 32 percent decline last year on worldwide revenues of $153.2bn.
Gartner's preliminary research showed Intel is still at the helm of the Asia-Pacific semiconductor market with a 13.6 percent share. This is followed by Samsung with a 5.7 percent while STMicroelectronics trails third with 5.2 percent.
The standings are similar on a worldwide level. Intel and Samsung remain as the top two vendors while Toshiba replaces STMicroelectronics in third.
The firm's findings closely mirror earlier reports by other industry bodies. According to a report released by the American Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) last month, chip sales will grow by 1.8 percent to $141bn this year.
SIA further predicted a 19.8 percent year-on-year growth to $169bn in 2003 and a 21.7 percent increase the year after.
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