Date: 05/11/2009

Semiconductor revenues to drop by 11% in year 2009: SIA forecast

Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) forecasts total global semiconductor revenues in year 2009 to reach 219.7 billion, a drop of 11.6% compared to 2008 revenues of 248.6 billion. With only one quarter left for the year 2009 to complete, these figures are realistic. Even the 4th quarter 2009 revenues grow spectacularly; the change may just get closer to 8-10%.

Nearly a year back SIA had projected that 2009 sales will decline by 5.6 percent to $246.7 billion. The most pessimistic projection was from Gartner, where it had predicted the total semiconductor revenue to fall by 22% to reach 198 billion in 2009.

Another researcher isuppli's recent estimation said, year 2009 semiconductor revenues to fall by 16.5%.

The major culprit for messy estimation was memory market, mainly the DRAM. Some of the DRAM and also NAND flash memory market parameters are similar to vegetable market, where the demand supply swing is so common.

SIA has also announced John Daane, Chairman and CEO of Altera Corp is elected as SIA Chairman.