July 'actual' chip sales fell 9.1%, says WSTS

LONDON — July's global market for semiconductors was $18.89 billion, down 9.1 percent from the $20.79 billion value of sales recorded in July 2008, according to "actual" data from the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization.

This represents a dramatic turnaround from June when actual global sales were $19.27 billion and 24.5 percent behind where they were in June 2008. May's global market for semiconductors was $16.29 billion, down 19.5 percent from its value in May 2008,

One contributory factor was the Americas region, whose market for semiconductors was ahead of its value in July 2008, the first region to demonstrate yearly growth since September of 2008. All the other regional markets are lower in value than they were in July 2008.

The SIA publishes WSTS numbers as a three-month average. 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. However, it is still possible to compare actual sales year-on-year and avoid such problems.

Related links and articles:

www.wsts.org

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