Miserable conditions cloud semiconductor market performance

In its latest report, the company says worldwide semiconductor revenue in the first quarter was $44.3billion, 18.8% lower than in Q4 of 2008 and 33.8% lower than in Q1 2008. "Of the more than 130 semiconductor suppliers tracked by iSuppli on a quarterly basis," said Dale Ford, iSuppli's senior vice president of market intelligence, "only six managed to expand their revenue in the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2008. Even among these six, only four increased their revenue by 1 to 3%." The report also points out that every major region suffered double digit percentage declines in semiconductor revenue in the first quarter compared to Q4 2008. European headquartered companies suffered the worst decline, with combined revenues falling by by 44.5% in dollar terms. "Although the first quarter is typically weak for the global semiconductor industry," Ford continued, "the sharp declines in semiconductor during that period and in the fourth quarter of 2008 reflect the impact of the global economic downturn on the worldwide chip business." However, iSuppli believes the industry is now at the bottom of its decline and forecasts that revenues in Q4 2009 will exceed those of Q4 2008.