Gartner analysts are forecasting that semiconductor revenue will total $411.1 billion in 2017. This marks an increase of 19.7% from 2016 – representing the strongest growth since the 2010 recovery from the financial crisis when revenue increased by 31.8%.
Beyond 2017, Gartner expects the semiconductor market to increase 4% in 2018 and reach $427.4 billion. The market is then projected to decline 1% in 2019, as the memory market turns with leading vendors, adding new supply.
“Memory continues to lead the semiconductor market higher and is expected to increase 57% in 2017 as supply and demand dynamics increase prices. A shortage of memory, and in particular DRAM, is driving semiconductor revenue higher,” said Jon Erensen, research director at Gartner. “Strength is spreading to other semiconductor categories as well with non-optical sensors, analog, discretes and image sensors all forecast to grow over 10% in 2017.”
It should be noted that Gartner’s above-mentioned forecast was published just weeks after the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) confirmed that worldwide sales of semiconductors had hit $35.0 billion for the month of August 2017.
Image Credit: Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA)
This represented an increase of 23.9% compared to the August 2016 total of $28.2 billion – and 4.0% more than the July 2017 total of $33.6 billion. Moreover, all major regional markets posted both year-to-year and month-to-month increases in August, while the Americas market led the way with growth of 39.0% year-to-year and 8.8% month-to-month.
“Global semiconductor sales were up significantly in August, increasing year-to-year for the thirteenth consecutive month and reaching $35 billion for the first time,” stated John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “Sales in August increased across the board, with every major regional market and semiconductor product category posting gains on a month-to-month and year-to-year basis. Memory products continue be a major driver of overall market growth, but sales were up even without memory in August.”
