Gartner: Asia leads semiconductor recovery

By Winston Chai

Following a drastic decline in 2001, the worldwide semiconductor market, buoyed largely by Asia-Pacific, is back in the black this year, according to research from Gartner.

Reflecting the increasing shift in electronic equipment production to Asia, the analyst house said the region is the only one in the world to post growth this year with a sales boom of 24 per cent.

Asia-Pacific, including China, is the largest regional semiconductor market, accounting for one-third of global sales, said Dorothy Lai, senior analyst at Gartner Asia-Pacific.

Strong consumer product shipments such as DVD players and digital TVs in Japan and Asia-Pacific have boosted revenues for Japanese vendors such as Matushita, Sanyo and Sharp, Lai added.

According to Gartner, global semiconductor revenues totaled $155.4bn (£100bn) in 2002, a slim 1.4 per cent increase from the previous year.

This compares with a dramatic 32 per cent decline last year on worldwide revenues of $153.2bn.

Gartner's preliminary research showed Intel is still at the helm of the Asia-Pacific semiconductor market with a 13.6 per cent share. This is followed by Samsung with 5.7 per cent while STMicroelectronics trails third with 5.2 per cent.

The standings are similar on a worldwide level. Intel and Samsung remain as the top two vendors while Toshiba replaces STMicroelectronics in third.

The firm's findings closely mirror earlier reports by other industry bodies. According to a report released by the American Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) last month, chip sales will grow by 1.8 per cent to $141bn this year.

SIA further predicted a 19.8 per cent year-on-year growth to $169bn in 2003 and a 21.7 per cent increase the year after.

Winston Chai writes for CNET Asia