“The small uptick in global semiconductor sales in May marked the market’s largest month-to-month growth in six months, but the overall landscape remains somewhat stagnant due to soft demand and unfavourable macroeconomic conditions,” said SIA president and CEO John Neuffer. “Most regional markets have struggled to gain traction in 2016, with the Americas falling well behind sales posted through the same point last year. Sales of analogue products were a bright spot in May, notching both month-to-month and year-to-year increases.”
Month to month sales in Europe declined by 0.8% and were 8.8% less than May 2015, said SIA.
* Meanwhile, the European Semiconductor Industry Association, which uses data from WSTS, says sales in Europe were $2.622bn in May 2016. This was 0.8% down on April and ‘in line with global monthly developments’. However, when stated in Euros, sales were down by 1.4% at €2.33bn compared to April, but 11.4% less than May 2015. This, says ESIA, is a result of exchange rate effects.
Sales in Europe were driven by discrete semiconductors (+2.5%), sensors and actuators (+0.5%) and logic semiconductor devices (+1.7%).
