Industrial ic market shows signs of recovery

Although the uptick seems modest, the increase marks a turnaround from the 3% decline seen in Q4 2012. It also represents a major improvement compared to the 3% contraction of the market a year ago in the first quarter of 2011. "The industrial semiconductor market's performance was encouraging, especially in light of continuing global economic uncertainty and the seasonal nature of the market, which typically sees slower movement in the first quarter of every year," said Robbie Galoso, principal analyst for electronics at IHS. "Some large segments of the industry, particularly avionics and oil and gas process-automation equipment, saw muscular double digit gains, helping to drive up overall revenue." In another positive development, several large industrial semiconductor suppliers also reported very lean inventories because of strong orders from customers. According to IHS, Infineon, Analog Devices and Texas Instruments all saw sequential declines in industrial chip stockpiles as their days of inventory measure fell well below average.