Japanese Demand Boosts World Semiconductor Sales

By Agence France-Presse Global semiconductor sales in June rose 10.4% from a year ago as a broad-based recovery took hold, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said Aug. 4. Boosted by demand in Japan, the Asia-Pacific and the Americas, sales advanced to $12.54 billion in June, up 0.4% from May and up 10.4% from June 2002. "As predicted, the recovery is broad-based and now is beginning to draw strength from computation, the largest end market for semiconductors," said SIA President George Scalise. The number of computers sold rose almost 8% in the second quarter when compared with last year, the association said. Comparing the second quarter with the first quarter, semiconductor sales were up 5.3% in Japan, 5.9% in the Asia Pacific and 3.6% in the Americas. But sales fell 4.1% in Europe because of weak economic growth and outsourcing of computer production to Asia, the SIA said. The industry association said it expected semiconductor sales to rise at a 10.1% annual rate in 2003. Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2003