SAN FRANCISCO—Six of the world's top 10 semiconductor suppliers booked chip sales in the second quarter that were lower than the second quarter of 2011, with four of the six experiencing double-digit declines, according to market research firm IHS iSuppli.
Global chip sales totaled $75.2 billion in the second quarter, down 3 percent from the second quarter of 2011, according to IHS. Second quarter sales improved by less than 3 percent compared with the first quarter, less than needed to put the industry on a trajectory for growth this year, IHS said. Last week the firm
decreased its outlook for the 2012 chip market, saying it now expects the market to contract slightly.
IHS blamed the year-over-year second quarter sales decline on generally poor economic conditions.
“Amid rising economic concerns—including the Eurozone crisis, slowing manufacturing growth in China and stubbornly highly unemployment in the United States—second-quarter growth for the global semiconductor industry was highly disappointing,” said Dale Ford, senior director of electronics and semiconductor research at IHS, in a statement.
Top 10 chip suppliers Texas Instruments Inc., Toshiba Corp., SK Hynix Inc., ST Microelectronics NV, Renesas Electronics Corp. and Micron Technology Inc. all posted second quarter sales that were down year-over-year. TI, Toshiba, Hynix and ST Micro all posted double digit declines.
