Market research firm Gartner claimed today that the global chip industry is poised to see 20 percent growth in the year 2010, despite the recession still not being completely over. The prediction is in agreement with similar predictions by others concerning the chip and semiconductor manufacturing industries. Strong demand for a variety of chips has so far contributed to strong earnings growth at chip makers from microprocessor giant Intel to memory chip king Samsung Electronics.
The firm says semiconductor revenue will reach US$276 billion this year, up from $231 billion last year, mainly due to increased demand for growth in PCs and memory chips.
“We have seen clear evidence that the semiconductor industry is poised for strong growth in 2010,” said Gartner analyst Bryan Lewis, in the statement.
Gartner expects 20 percent more PCs to be produced this year than in 2009, a major boon for chip makers. DRAM makers will benefit from a 55 percent rise in revenue this year, making the chip segment the fastest growing “by far,” the market researcher said. Most DRAM chips are used in PCs.
The full-year chip industry growth target is slightly higher than that of in-house forecasters at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chip maker. TSMC last month said it expects the global semiconductor market to grow 18 percent this year, after contracting 9 percent last year, due mainly to strong PC and mobile phone sales.
The company plans to spend a historical-high $4.8 billion on new factories and production lines this year to keep pace with fast chip industry growth, and to make up for slower spending during the recession.
Samsung, the world’s biggest memory chip maker, predicted last month that strong PC sales will raise chip revenue 10 percent to 20 percent this year and that prices of DRAM and NAND flash memory chips will remain strong.
Source: PC World.
