"Today's global sales numbers represent an 18,9% growth rate for the semiconductor industry in 1999," said George Scalise, SIA President. "With year-end global sales reaching $149 billion, 1999 broke all predictions and industry sales records and was an exceptional year of record growth and productivity for our industry."
Led by strong seasonal demand for communications products and personal computers, microprocessors grew 9,8% in 1999, totalling $27,2 billion.
"We witnessed across the board growth in all markets and product demand was strong in all regions of the world," said Scalise. "Sales were extremely strong for flash memory, chipsets and DRAM due to demand for Internet infrastructure, e-commerce and wired and wireless communications. Flash memory increased 83% in 1999, primarily driven by wireless communications and totalled $4,6 billion. DRAM increased 48% in 1999 due to strong PC and server demand and totalled $20,7 billion."
The 1999 SIA industry forecast calls for over 20% growth in 2000 and 2001, with connectivity applications such as cellular phones and the Internet continuing to see robust growth. Cellular phone sales are projected to grow from over 200 million units in 1999 to over a billion by 2003 - a quintupling of the market. Devices connected to the Internet (PCs, information appliances and Internet-enabled cellphones) are expected to grow from some 200 million units in 1999 to over 700 million in 2003. e-commerce (both business-to-consumer and business-to-business) will contribute to both of these trends, growing from $50 billion in 1998 to $1,3 trillion in 2003.
Digital signal processors continued to support a broader base of applications resulting in sales growth of 25,7% in 1999, totalling $4,4 billion due to demand for wireless communications applications.
Microprocessors, due to PC growth rates will continue as the largest product line while embedded applications for products such as set-top boxes begin to emerge. DSPs, flash memory, and dedicated telecom circuits are expected to lead the growth phase of the semiconductor market. These products support the emerging applications and will grow at more than 20% over the next four years.
The total market year-to-year growth is 30% compared to the same three-month period in December 1998.
"We saw a strong rebound in 1999 in the Asia-Pacific market and Japan is finally showing signs of recovery from an eight-year recession," added Scalise.
In 1999, the Japan and Asia-Pacific markets grew at 26,7% and 28,9%, respectively from last year. Japan is the third largest of the markets by region, accounting for 22% of the world's consumption of semiconductors. Asia-Pacific, recovering from the economic crisis of 1997, will resume its role as the fastest growing market for semiconductors, and is the world's second largest market for semiconductors accounting for 25% of the world's consumption. The rapidly expanding economy in the Asia-Pacific market (especially in China) and the telecom revolution are impelling growth in this region.
The largest single market by region is the Americas, representing 30% of all consumption and grew by 14,6% last year. In the Americas, the personal computer (PC) continues to dominate the market, although the rapid growth of Internet usage is increasing demand for servers, network components and other Internet infrastructure.
Europe's sales grew 8,4% in 1999. Europe's growth is driven in large part by European unification, which deregulated Europe's telecom markets and sparked a revolution in wireless communications. Europe's market accounts for 21% of world chip consumption.
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