Semiconductor industry sees biggest growth since 2010

Revenue in 2014 is expected to reach $353.2billion, up 9.4% from $322.8bn last year. The nearly double digit percentage increase follows growth of 6.4% in 2013, a decline of more than 2% in 2012 and a minor increase of 1% in 2011. Dale Ford, vice president and chief analyst at IHS Technology, said: "This is the healthiest the semiconductor business has been in many years, not only in light of the overall growth, but also because of the broad based nature of the market expansion. "While the upswing in 2013 was almost entirely driven by growth in a few specific memory segments, the rise in 2014 is built on a widespread increase in demand for a variety of different types of chips. Because of this, nearly all semiconductor suppliers can enjoy good cheer as they enter the 2014 holiday season." Of the 28 key sub segments of the semiconductor market tracked by IHS, 22 are expected to expand in 2014. In contrast, only 12 sub segments of the semiconductor industry grew in 2013. Last year, the key drivers of the growth of the semiconductor market were DRAM and data flash memory. This year, the combined revenue for DRAM and data flash memory is projected to rise about 20%. However, growth in the rest of the market will swell by 6.7% to support the overall market increase of 9.4%. In 2013, only eight semiconductor sub segments grew by 5% or more and only three achieved double digit growth. In 2014, IHS says over half of all the sub segments will grow by more than 5% and eight markets will grow by double digit percentages. Regionally, Japan continues to struggle but the Asia-Pacific, Americas and EMEA regions are all expected to see healthy growth. Asia-Pacific leads the way with a 12.5% expansion this year.