Consumer chip sales faltered in December

THE WSTS (World Semiconductor Trade Statistics) figures for last December showed that chip sales rose by 12.2 per cent compared to the same month in the previous year, with mixed results for the different sectors.

Handelsbanken Capital Markets, for example, said it had projected a rise of 14.4%, and while the three month moving average fell by $20.4 billion to $19.95 billion, it had expected a fall to $20.10 billion.

Sales of memory chips for both DRAM and NAND were weaker than expected while PC CPU shipments were better.

AMD and Intel CPU sales soared during the month, despite Intel's warning some shipments were piling up in the factories.

Most of the growth comes from developing sectors and DRAM may have been weak because PCs sold here typically use less memory, reckoned Handelsbanken.

DRAM continued to be squeezed, but, said Handelsbanken, the biggest surprise was a sharp fall in NAND flash memory, widely used in consumer electronics.

And sales of CCDs, used in digicams and camera phones fell, while prices rose, indicating the shift to the latter category slowed during December.

Handelsbanken's take on weak performance of LCD TV chips was one of surprise, given the amount of money companies are plunging into this sector.

There's some interesting stats on handset exports - the WSTS reckons Chinese exports in December amounted to 28.7 million. Brazil also manufactured and shipped a record number of handsets. µ

L'INQS
WSTS page
Handelsbanken