Americas region continues to lead semiconductor recovery

LONDON — The Americas region achieved actual sales of $3.22 billion in August 2009, up 7.6 percent from the same month a year before, according to "actual" data from the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics organization. The Americas, which is dominated in terms of sales by the U.S., remains the only region able to demonstrate monthly sales growth year-on-year.

In July actual chip sales in the Americas region was up 7.3 percent from the same month a year before so growth is improving and is expected to accelerate in the fourth quarter. In contrast all the other regional markets monitored by WSTS are still falling year-on-year and the global chip sales market in August fell by 12.9 percent compared with the same month a year before.

The worst performing region continues to be Europe. With August sales of $2.37 billion Europe was 27.4 percent behind where it was in August 2008, a steeper percentage decline than recorded in July 2009.

Japan scored August sales of $3.27 billion and was 21.2 percent down on the $4.14 billion sales recorded in August 2008. August Japanese sales are also further behind in percentage terms than they were in July.

The Asia-Pacific region, which is worth approximately half the global market for semiconductor chips, achieved sales data of $10.15 billion, down 11.2 percent on the same month a year before. Again, this was a larger percentage annual decline than the region experienced in July.

Although the regions — apart from the Americas — are showing hints of a double-dip, as sales move into the fourth quarter, annual comparisons will be with the depressed monthly sales figures of the fourth quarter of 2008, and are expected to start showing annual growth. Secondly, after a year of investment caution some chip types are coming into short supply, which is likely to drive average selling prices up and thereby increase the market value, even where unit shipments are flat.

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