Memory boom drives global semi sales
1 min read
The global semiconductor market is gaining strength after a disappointing 2012, reports IHS.
The market analyst says revenue expanded by nearly 5% in 2013 to reach $317.9billion, mostly because of the strong performance of the memory sector.
In particular, growth is being attributed to the massive success of the dram and NAND flash markets.
"Without these two high performing product segments, the semiconductor industry would attain zero growth," IHS said in a statement.
Of all the memory companies, the most successful in 2013 was Micron, which saw 2013 revenue grow by a record 109.2%.
Other major players last year were SK Hynix, which saw sales expand by 48.7%, and Qualcomm, which saw revenue growth of 31.6%.
The news wasn't all positive, however, with companies including Renesas, Intel, Rohm Semiconductor, Texas Instruments and Nvidia all reporting a decline in sales.
Apart from the memory market, IHS says the highest performing sector was wireless, followed by industrial electronics, leds, cmos image sensors, standard logic and sensors & actuators.
Asia-Pacific led all regions in terms of consumption of semiconductors with growth of 8.9%, followed closely by the Americas, which saw a 5% increase.
