Semiconductor Market Maintains Momentum at Start of 2014

by Semiconductor Industry Association

As SIA reported earlier this month, worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $78.47 billion during the first quarter of 2014, marking the industry’s highest-ever first quarter sales.  It seems apparent that global semiconductor market performance in early 2014 has continued where 2013 left off with positive sales growth. Through the second half of 2013 and into 2014, the global semiconductor market has demonstrated consistent positive sales momentum, and 2014 global sales are well ahead of last year’s pace through the first quarter by 11.4 percent. As the orange line in the table below clearly illustrates, sales performance from the first three months of 2014 is well ahead of Q1 performance for any of the last five years. [Source: World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) data]

A deeper analysis of the Q1 data suggests a comprehensive strengthening of the market is occurring. Year-over-year sales growth in January, February, and March was 8.7, 12.1, and 11.4 percent, respectively, on a three-month moving average basis. For example, global sales reached $26.16 billion for the month of March 2014, an increase of 11.4 percent from March 2013 when sales were $23.48 billion. Also, sales in all major regional semiconductor markets are growing. For the first quarter of 2014, sales in the Americas (16.1 percent), Europe (8.0 percent), Japan (0.4 percent), and Asia Pacific (12.9 percent) grew compared to first quarter 2013 levels. Also, March year-over-year sales in all four regions grew, marking the first time in more than three years that this has occurred.

In addition, the beginning of 2014 witnessed consistent growth across all main semiconductor product segments. While much of the industry growth in 2013 was attributed to memory sales growth, the beginning of 2014 has seen consistent growth from most other product segments including logic and analog, which grew year-over-year in March 2014 by 8.5 percent and 8.2 percent, respectively. In fact, total semiconductor sales growth excluding memory grew by 8.1 percent in March 2014.