SAN JOSE--Worldwide chip sales climbed to a record high $14.96 billion in March, a 33.8% increase from $11.18 billion in the month last year and 2.8% higher than $14.56 billion in February, said the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) here today.
The SIA also said the most dramatic sales increase in the first quarter of 2000 occurred in flash memories, which was up 197.5% from Q1 1999. First-quarter revenues for programmable logic devices (PLDs) were up 77.8%, said the U.S. trade group. Digital signal processor (DSP) sales grew 52.8% in the first quarter, "application specific" MOS logic was up 59.5%, and DRAM grew 33.4% compared to Q1 1999, said the SIA, which did not break out dollar amounts for those segments.
"The strong sales in the first quarter put the industry on course for another record sales year," declared George Scalise, president of the SIA in San Jose. "Product sectors, in addition to microprocessors and DRAMs used in PC's, that played a major role in the March sales include flash, digital signal processors, programmable logic and standard cell. These semiconductor products can be found in many consumer goods including cellular applications, automobiles and home appliances."
Using a three-month moving average, the SIA global sales report said chip sales in the Asia-Pacific region grew 46.1% in March to $3.81 billion compared to $2.61 billion in the same month last year. Japan's semiconductor sales jumped 38.4% (in dollar revenues) to $3.35 billion vs. $2.42 billion in March 1999, said the trade group.
Chip sales in the Americas grew 25.1% to $4.53 billion in March compared to $3.62 billion in the month last year, and European semiconductor revenues were up 29.2% to $3.27 billion vs. $2.53 billion in March 1999, according to the SIA's monthly report.
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