Worldwide semiconductor revenue up 20% in 2010?

According to Gartner's research vice president, Bryan Lewis, there is clear evidence that the semiconductor industry is poised for strong growth this year. Lewis said: "While the semiconductor market declined 9.6% in 2009, sequential quarterly revenue growth was amazingly strong through the last three quarters of 2009. After the gloom early in the year, pc unit production growth actually turned out to be positive in 2009 and is expected to grow close to 20% in 2010, fueling strength in semiconductors." Lewis believes that a minor correction in semiconductor sales is needed in the near future to rebalance chip sales with system sales. The analyst's semiconductor forecast shows a 7% rise in third quarter sales followed by a relatively flat fourth quarter, which will better align semiconductor sales with system sales. Lewis added that pcs and memory will be the primary drivers for semiconductor revenue growth in 2010. "Rising dram prices, coupled with strong pc demand will lead to over 55% dram revenue growth in 2010, making dram the fastest growing device type by far," he explained. Gartner analysts expect the semiconductor industry to show continued growth through its forecast period in 2014. It claims the market is on track to surpass the $300bn mark in 2012 when the market is forecast to total $304bn. Lewis concluded: "Given the sales momentum and earlier cutbacks in capital spending, semiconductor foundry and packaging utilisation rates are approaching constraints and most regions and most applications are seeing increased orders. The key question now is will the recovery continue at its current rate or will we see a correction?"