SAN FRANCISCO—The three-month rolling average of global semiconductors in January totaled $23.1 billion, down 2.7 percent from $23.8 billion, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), which on Monday (March 5) issued the first monthly sales report since Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. stopped reporting data to the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) program.
January chip sales were down 8.8 percent compared with January 2011, according to WSTS data.
"The month over month revenue decline for January is in line with seasonal patterns," said Brian Toohey, the SIA's president, in a statement. "A weakened global economy amidst inflation concerns and the European debt crisis continued to affect sales at the start of the year, but there are strong signs pointing to recovery and growth as 2012 progresses."
Semiconductor sales are expected to improve due to positive demand drivers, an improved U.S. economic outlook and the resolution to the floods in Thailand, the SIA said.
The SIA said it remains fully committed to providing monthly semiconductor revenue data and would continue to publish WSTS data according to the established schedule. Intel and AMD
both confirmed last week they had exited the WSTS program, saying that they concluded it no longer made sense to participate. Analysts have speculated that first AMD and then Intel concluded that reporting data to the WSTS about microprocessor sales—a category in which they are the only significant players—left too much data exposed to public view.
A spokesperson for the SIA said the WSTS estimated the January sales of AMD and Intel as well as other chip companies that don't report data.
Source: WSTS/SIA
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