Sees its semiconductor unit outperforming market in 05
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LONDON (CBS.MW) - Philips Electronics, the largest consumer electronics maker in Europe, on Tuesday cautioned it expects flat sales in its semiconductor business in the fourth quarter and is seeing ongoing margin pressure in consumer electronics.
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GLOBAL semiconductor sales rose to Â£10.1 billion in August from the previous month and it appears chip inventories are declining, industry trade group the Semiconductor Industry Association said.
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Sales of semiconductors in November indicate that consumer products such as LCD (liquid crystal display) TVs, digital music players, and other devices sold well during the holidays, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said Monday.November chip sales rose 2.3 percent year-on-year to $23.1 billion, the SIA said.Unit demand has far outpaced last year. But falling chip prices have hurt industry revenue, the chip association said. For example, DRAM (dynamic RAM) bit shipments grew 25 percent in the three months through mid-December, but average selling prices have declined 20 percent over the same period.The association also noted that rising energy prices and concerns about the sub-prime lending issue in the U.S. do not appear to have had a significant impact on consumer spending for the holidays, the SIA said. The group reiterated its forecast that worldwide semiconductor sales will reach a new record in 2007. But it will take a stronger than expected December selling season to reach the 3.8 percent growth goal the group had&#160;forecast earlier this year, the SIA said.Investment banking firm Credit Suisse was not as optimistic as the SIA.The November data was below normal seasonal trends, noted analyst John Pitzer, in a report on Monday. Even if December reaches its normal seasonal growth, 2007 industry revenue will only reach $255.7 billion, up 3.2 percent over last year. The growth percentage would fall short of the SIA&#39;s 3.8 percent target.The slow November prompted Credit Suisse to lower its 2008 chip industry revenue forecast to 9.4 percent year-on-year growth, down from a previous target of 13 percent.
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The semiconductor industry will consolidate, with nearly 40 percent of today&#39;s chip vendors disappearing over the next few years, market researcher Gartner said in a forecast released this week.
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Worldwide semiconductor sales rose a scant 1.5 percent in October, to $18.8 billion from $18.5 billion in September, as many chip users pared inventories.
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(InfoWorld) - Falling prices for DRAM chips and microprocessors badly hurt the global semiconductor market, which will likely limp to a sales increase of just 2.5 percent in 2007, according to an analyst report released Thursday. Semiconductor sales were originally expected to rise by 6.4 percent over 2006 levels, according to the study from Gartner. But chip sales in the first quarter of 2007 were more than 5 percent lower than in the fourth quarter of 2006, leading the research company to cut its 2007 market revenue forecast to $269.2 billion. The numbers reflect a continuingÂ price war between Intel and Advanced Micro DevicesÂ (AMD), as the processor vendors struggle for market share. That war has already taken a toll on AMD, which blamed slow chip sales for itsÂ $611 million lossÂ in the first quarter of 2007. Intel, a much larger company, has continued to post profitable quarters, but on May 2 addedÂ another 1,000 layoffsÂ to a corporate reorganization it began in 2006. Conditions areÂ worst of all in the DRAM sectorÂ of the industry, which will see its revenue drop 11.1 percent in 2007 to $30.5 billion, then limp to a smaller decline in 2008, according to Richard Gordon, research vice president at Gartner. The forecast could spell trouble for Samsung Electronics, the world's largest producer of DRAM and NAND flash. However,Â Samsung's pain may be dulledÂ if tumbling chip prices attract consumers into stores, as prices for end-user products using NAND flash memory like PCs, iPods and digital cameras are also expected to drop. In the long run, chip prices will continue to fall throughout 2007 as semiconductor manufacturers try to clear excess chips out of their warehouses, Gordon said. Chip manufacturers do have some cause for optimism, however, as they have already begun to control that inventory by cutting production. If that effort succeeds, the industry could return to modest growth of 8.7 percent in 2008 and 7.2 percent in 2009, he added. Â
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MANHASSET, NY - In yet another sign the semiconductor industry is in for a rough quarter, National Semiconductor Corp. (Santa Clara, Calif.
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SEOUL -- Samsung Electronics Co. yesterday offered a bullish outlook on the global semiconductor industry, with a top executive predicting increased demand for chips used in both digital devices and personal computers.
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Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC), China&#39;s largest chip maker, fell short of its bid to turn a profit in 2007, ending the year with a $40 million loss. But that&#160;won&#39;t stop the company from expanding in 2008.SMIC saw revenue of $1.5 billion during 2007, an increase of 5.8 percent over the previous year. But higher sales weren&#39;t enough to offset a slide in DRAM prices and the company ended the year with a loss, albeit one that was slightly narrower than the $44.1 million loss recorded by the company in 2006.SMIC turned in a fourth-quarter loss of $22.2 million on revenue of $395.3 million. By comparison, the company reported a profit of $143,000 for the fourth quarter of 2006, thanks to an exceptional one-time gain from the sale of used equipment.Once seen as a potential rival to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world&#39;s largest contract chip maker,&#160;SMIC has struggled to turn a profit. Part of the problem is that, as the company built a series of new chip plants in China, it turned to DRAM companies for orders in a bid to fill these production lines. But DRAM is a brutal business with razor-thin margins and&#160;recent declines in memory prices&#160;have hurt SMIC&#39;s bottom line.SMIC is trying to wean itself off DRAM as a source of revenue, but the switch to production of more logic chips, which generally command higher prices and have better margins, hasn&#39;t happened fast enough to pull the chip maker out of the red.DRAM represented 23.6 percent of SMIC&#39;s revenue during the fourth quarter, compared to 38.6 percent during the same period last year. By comparison, logic chips represented a greater percentage of SMIC&#39;s fourth-quarter revenue, rising from 57.4 percent in 2006 to 67.4 percent last year.Despite reporting another annual loss, SMIC continues to expand. The company announced plans to build a 200-millimeter production line and a 300-millimeter fabrication plant in Shenzhen, a southern Chinese city that lies next to Hong Kong. Construction will begin during the first half of 2008, the company said.
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Global semiconductor sales next year are expected to total $215.3 billion, up just 1.2% from this year, according to a forecast released this week by an industry group that tracks global chip sales.
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NEW YORK, November 26  - The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) expects global semiconductor sales to remain sequentially flat in the current quarter, while reiterating its forecasts of at least 28% y/y growth in worldwide chip
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Trade group says orders were down 5% from July after almost a year of growth, sees trend continuing. SAN FRANCISCO  - North American semiconductor capital equipment manufacturers reported that orders
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THE global semiconductor business slumped during the second half of the year - although overall 2004 brought a 23% increase in revenue in the industry amounting to $218bn (Â£112bn), according to analysts at researchers Gartner Dataquest yesterday.
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A strong demand for its computer chips brightens otherwise dismal year for the maker of semiconductors. By Laurie J. Flynn. SAN FRANCISCO -- Eking out a strong finish to end a disappointing year, Intel Corp
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(InfoWorld) - Despite a revenue plunge of 9.5 percent, Intel Corp. will retain its title as king of the hill for the worldwide semiconductor industry, posting annual revenue of $31.3 billion for 2006, according to Gartner. Intel's top competitors will post much better numbers, all recording double-digit revenue growth as they enjoy strong sales in dynamic RAM (DRAM) memory chips, wireless semiconductors and NAND flash, according to preliminary results for 2006 that Gartner released Thursday. Overall, the market is set to grow 11.3 percent to $261.4 billion. Intel's sinking results in this rising tide will cause its market share to sag from 14.7 percent in 2005 to 12 percent. The company was only able to record its 15th straight year as a market leader because it had banked such a large lead on smaller rivals like Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (with 7.9 percent market share) and Texas Instruments Inc. (4.5 percent). Intel's problem was that its competitor Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) sold superior processors through the third quarter, judging by the chips' balance of price and performance in the server and consumer enthusiast segments, Gartner said. Intel lost even more revenue as the two companies launched a price war, which hurt Intel more than AMD as the larger company. Meanwhile, Samsung strengthened its position as the industry's second-biggest vendor by selling more DRAM, static RAM (SRAM) and NAND flash chips than any other company. Samsung will grow 12.4 percent to reach revenues of $20.6 billion, followed by Texas Instruments growing 17.4 percent to $11.9 billion and Infineon Technologies AG growing 29 percent to reach $10.6 billion, Gartner said. The bottom half of the top 10 were all predicted to record revenue of single-digit billions, including STMicroelectronics NV, Toshiba Corp., Renesas Technology Corp., Hynix Semiconductor Inc., AMD and Freescale Semiconductor Inc. The semiconductor industry will grow more slowly in 2007, likely rising by a high single-digit percentage compared to its 11.3 percent rise in 2006, Gartner said. The high points of the coming year will include continuing strength in the DRAM market and strong consumer electronics sales.ADVERTISEMENTNEW IT SERVICES FROM IBM: EASIER TO BUY AND IMPLEMENTDiscover a simpler, more cost-effective way to get the solutions your company needs to grow more flexible and efficient.
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Intel'sÂ deal with STMicroelectronics to create a new semiconductor company was a hit this week with IT investors, who continue to reward bold merger and acquisition moves in hard-fought tech markets like chips and Internet services. Rumors of aÂ Salesforce.com hook up with GoogleÂ andÂ Yahoo's continuing search for Web 2.0 companiesÂ also are stoking investor interest.
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The world's largest chipmaker posts its best quarterly sales figures, boosting optimism about profit throughout the industry.