Worldwide sales of semiconductors totaled $12.50 billion in May, 2003, up 2.0% from the $12.26 billion in revenue reported in April of 2003 - the third consecutive monthly increase and a 9.9 % increase from May 2002 revenue of $11.38 billion, according to figures, recently released by Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

SIA forecasts, that the growth for the year 2003 will be 10.1 and SIA President George Scalise said that industry is on track to this number. “As SARS and the geopolitical issues come under control, we expect to see demand in all geographic sectors, especially China, strengthen in the second half of the year,” said Scalise.

According to SIA’s report, sales of programmable logic and standard cell chips increased 8.6% in May indicating an anticipated pickup in telecom spending, while in the wireless sector, Flash memory was up 4.4%, and in the computation sector ASSPs were up 3.7%, DRAMs up 2.5%, and optoelectronics were up 6.3 %.

In the month of May, sales in Japan rose 26 % on a year-over-year basis, Asia Pacific was up 11.7%, and Europe was up 9.3%, while sales in the Americas market declined by 6.7% as the outsourcing of electronic equipment production to Asia continues.

In mid-June, the SIA released its 2003-2006 midyear forecast, projecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.8% a year over the forecast period. Annually, worldwide sales of semiconductors are expected to increase 10.1% in 2003, 16.8% in 2004, 5.0% in 2005, and 7.0% in 2006. The SIA expects industry sales to grow from about $141 billion in 2002 to about $205 billion in 2006.

The SIA’s Global Sales Report (GSR) is a three-month moving average of sales activity. The GSR is tabulated by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization, which represents approximately 66 companies. The moving average is a math1ematical smoothing technique that mitigates variations due to companies’ monthly financial calendars.