Semiconductors & Testing News: Top Story Asia-Pacific Becoming World's Largest Semiconductor Market
HSINCHU, Taiwan, Nov 20 (Asia Pulse) - The Asia Pacific region, excluding Japan, will become the world's largest semiconductor market this year, replacing the Americas for the first time, the Economic and Trade Center under the Industrial Technology Research Institute predicted Monday.
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Center officials said that sales of semiconductors in the Asia Pacific this year are likely to top US$40 billion, while those in the Americas will reach US$38 billion, Japan will account for US$35 billion and Europe will buy US$30 billion-worth of semiconductors.
However, the officials also quoted statistics of the Semiconductor Industry Association of the United States as predicting that sales of semiconductors this year might go down 43 per cent in the Americas, down 30 per cent in Europe, down 28 per cent in Japan and down 22 per cent in the Asia Pacific area.
The rise of the mainland Chinese market has contributed heavily to the performance of the Asia Pacific area, the officials went on.
They further predicted small decreases in the growth of semiconductor sales in the Americas, Europe and Japan next year, while the growth in the Asia Pacific region will rise 12 per cent.
The officials also predicted that market growth between 2002-2004 will be 5.1 per cent for the Asia Pacific region, negative 6.9 per cent for the Americas, negative 2.4 per cent for Europe and negative 0.8 per cent for Japan.
(CNA)