The global semiconductor industry posted sales totaling US$412.2 billion in 2017, the industry's highest-ever annual sales and an increase of 21.6% compared to the 2016 total, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

Global sales for the month of December 2017 reached US$38.0 billion, an increase of 22.5% over the December 2016 total and 0.8% more than the previous month's total, SIA disclosed. Fourth-quarter sales of US$114.0 billion were 22.5% higher than the total from the fourth quarter of 2016 and 5.7% more than the third quarter of 2017.

Global sales during the fourth quarter of 2017 and during December 2017 were the industry's highest-ever quarterly and monthly sales, respectively, SIA indicated.

"As semiconductors have become more heavily embedded in an ever-increasing number of products - from cars to coffee makers - and nascent technologies like artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and the Internet of Things have emerged, global demand for semiconductors has increased, leading to landmark sales in 2017 and a bright outlook for the long term," said John Neuffer, SIA president and CEO. "The global market experienced across-the-board growth in 2017, with double-digit sales increases in every regional market and nearly all major product categories. We expect the market to grow more modestly in 2018."

Several semiconductor product segments stood out in 2017. Memory was the largest semiconductor category by sales with US$124.0 billion in 2017, and the fastest growing, with sales increasing 61.5%, SIA noted. Within the memory category, sales of DRAM products increased 76.8% and sales of NAND flash products increased 47.5%.

Logic (US$102.2 billion) and micro-ICs (US$63.9 billion) - a category that includes microprocessors - rounded out the top three product categories in terms of total sales, SIA said. Other fast-growing product categories in 2017 included rectifiers (18.3%), diodes (16.4%), and sensors and actuators (16.2%). Even without sales of memory products, sales of all other products combined increased by nearly 10% in 2017, SIA identified.

Annual sales increased substantially across all regions: the Americas (35.0%), China (22.2%), Europe (17.1%), Asia Pacific/All Other (16.4%), and Japan (13.3%). The Americas market also led the way in growth for the month of December 2017, with sales up 41.4% year-to-year and 2.1% month-to-month. Next were Europe (20.2%/-1.6%), China (18.1%/1.0%), Asia Pacific/All Other (17.4%/0.2%), and Japan (14.0%/0.9%).

By: DocMemory
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