Semiconductor market starting to look interesting, says Future Horizons
Michael McManus, DIGITIMES, Taipei [Tuesday 5 August 2008]
With market data recently released by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) showing that quarterly semiconductor sales growth reached 3.0% in the second quarter, Malcolm Penn, Chairman & CEO of Future Horizons reiterated that the semiconductor industry remains strong, despite a general gloom observed in the market.
On a year-on-year basis, total semiconductor sales and ASPs (average selling prices) in June were up 12.2% and 11.8%, respectively, with logic the star performer (up 25.3% and 16.6%), followed by analog (14.5% and 0.2%) and micro (12.2% and 6.5%), let down only by memory (-5.8% and -10.2% respectively), Penn noted. In the non-IC categories, opto was up 25.2% and 10.1% respectively, followed by total discretes at 8.4% and 15.7%.
The market excluding memories was up 18.1% in value versus June 2007, driven by a 11.2% increase in units and 6.2% growth in ASPs, Penn stated.
Given the strong underlying market fundamentals, Penn questioned the less than optimistic outlook seen in the market, while implying that pessimism should generally directed at specific companies rather than specific sectors. Looking at the second quarter results, Penn pointed out that whereas Broadcom and ST grew 16% and 7% respectively, Infineon, NXP and Texas Instruments (TI) were flat.