SAN JOSE – The Semiconductor Industry Association today upped its worldwide chip sales forecast, saying the market will grow 28.4% to $290.5 billion in 2010.

 

The trade group also lowered its 2011 outlook to 6.3%, and forecast 2.9% in 2012.

 

The latest projection is a marked increase from SIA's November forecast of 10% growth in 2010, and follows Gartner's move earlier this week in which the analyst raised its outlook seven points, to 27% growth.

 

In its November forecast, SIA had forecast 8.4% growth in 2011.

 

“Healthy demand in all major product sectors and in all geographic markets drove sales of semiconductors to record levels in the first four months of 2010,” said SIA president George Scalise. “While the year-on-year growth rate will moderate through the remainder of the year, we expect modest sequential sales growth in line with historic seasonal patterns. The industry began the year with inventories in balance and we do not see evidence of excess inventory accumulation at this time.

 

“Economic forecasts project global economic growth rates of 4.6% in 2010 and 4.4% for 2011, with the fastest growth expected to be in emerging economies. These emerging markets – especially China and India – are creating demand for information technology products, which in turn fuels demand for semiconductors,” Scalise said.