Posted on Friday, May 28th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
The last time the global semiconductor industry achieved annual revenue growth greater than 30pc was when Bill Clinton was US president, Gladiator was topping the box office and the dot.com boom was so hot that the merger of AOL and Time Warner actually seemed like a good idea. Now, 10 years after the chip business’ whopping 36.7pc expansion of 2000, the industry is expected to finally break the 30pc barrier once again in 2010, with revenue set to rise to US$300.3bn, up 30.6pc from US$229.9bn in 2009. However, unlike the internet-crazed spike in 2000, growth in chip sales this year will be driven by real fundamental supply/factors that slowly have been gaining momentum during the past 12 months. “Chip sales growth this year will be fuelled by a number of key factors, including continued strong consumer demand for hot electronic products, diligent inventory and capacity management efforts among chip makers and the arrival of innovative technologies at both the component and end-system levels.” This year will mark an all-time annual high for global semiconductor revenue, eclipsing the previous record of US$274bn set in 2007 by about 9pc.
