September 'actual' chip sales narrow the gap on 2008

LONDON — September's global market for semiconductors was $23.98 billion, down 8.7 percent from the $26.26 billion value for sales recorded in September 2008, according to "actual" data from the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization.

The adjusted August global market for semiconductors was $19.04 billion, down 12.8 percent from the $21.83 billion value of sales recorded in August 2008.

The reason for the discrepancy between the numbers quoted by the SIA and those from the WSTS, is that the SIA takes the WSTS numbers and creates a three-month average from a given month and the two preceding months. It argues that this smoothes out the data which would otherwise display the effect of in-quarter reporting that tend to treat March, June, September and December as five-week months.

The 8.7 percent annual decline represents a turnaround from June when actual global sales were $19.27 billion and 24.5 percent behind where they were in June 2008.

Related links and articles:

www.wsts.org

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