CAMBRIDGE, England – Global chip sales for April 2012 are likely to be reported at about 5 percent lower than the same month in 2011, according to Bruce Diesen, an analyst at Carnegie Group (Oslo, Norway).
Diesen is referring to actual chip sales rather than the three-month average of February, March and April, which will soon be published by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics organization. A 5 percent decline year-on-year in April would be similar to February and March figures, Diesen said.
If this occurs it would result in a three-month average of about $23.3 billion in April, steady versus the March figure.
"PC production stayed soft in April, due to a shortage of disk drives from Thailand. Tablet production was probably strong. Handset chips probably improved in April. Base station chips seem to be picking up in Q2," said Diesen.
Diesen is sticking to his previous prediction for world semiconductor sales in 2012 of a 2 percent increase in dollars compared with 2011.