Global chip sales seen ticking up in May

And the three-month moving average of global chip sales is expected to come in at $16.6 billion, compared to the $15.6 billion achieved in April. This would represent a fall of 22.6 percent on the three-month figure for May 2008.

Actual May chip sales probably fell 18.4 percent year-on-year, according to Bruce Diesen, a senior strategist and analyst at Carnegie ASA, compared with a fall of 15.5 percent in April.

Carnegie suggests that due to a heavy schedule of holidays in Asia in May, chip shipments to Europe and the U.S. should be the geographical regions improving. PC, automotive and data storage chips should be stronger areas.

Diesen says chip sales in 2009 are now predicted to fall 15 percent in dollar terms, a worsening of the previous forecast of 13 percent decline.

Slower than expected consumer spending in the U.S. and Russia, less chip-intensive tech spending in China, with strong showing from LCD TVs but a poor performance from smartphones, are given as the main reasons.

The latest estimate from Carnegie suggests 42 percent of chips are used in PCs, 20 percent go into communications equipment and a similar percentage into consumer products, 8 percent from the automotive sector and 8 percent in industrial products.

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