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Market News

SAN JOSE – The 90-day moving average worldwide semiconductor sales in April were $23.6 billion, up 2.2% from March and 50.4% year-over-year.

STAMFORD, CT – Global PC unit sales are expected to grow 22% this year to 376.6 million units on ramped consumer buying, says Gartner.

The research firm says revenues will rise up 12% from last year to $245.4 billion.

Home PC units are expected to rise 29.5%, while PCs in the workplace are expected to grow 13.1% this year.

As a result of aging PCs and the adoption of Windows 7, Gartner says larger businesses will refresh PCs in the second half of 2010, continuing in 2011. The Windows 7 migration is expected to last through 2012.

Netbooks are expected to rise 30% in 2010, accounting for 18.6% of mobile PCs; however, their share of the market is predicted to fall to 13.9% by 2014. Gartner says tablets could take away share from netbooks starting in 2013.

SMYRNA, GA -- Overall registration for Virtual PCB (virtual-pcb.com) jumped 30% from a year ago as more than 2,900 PCB designers, fabricators and assemblers registered for the industry's only virtual trade show and conference.

SHENZHEN – First-quarter DRAM revenue grew 6.9% sequentially to $9.3 billion, and higher demand is fueling shortage fears, says DRAMeXchange.

Market leader Samsung recorded $3 billion in revenue, up 9.1% sequentially. Samsung’s share slightly increased 0.6% to 32.3%. Hynix’s DRAM sales rose 6.8% to nearly $2 billion, followed by Elpida at $1.6 billion, down 3.7% sequentially.

Benefitting from price and a 17% sequential shipment enhancement, Micron recorded $1.3 billion in revenue, up 24% compared to the fourth quarter.

PSC’s revenue grew 8.3% to $442 million. PSC surpassed Nanya for the No.5 spot. Nanya recorded $425 million in revenue, down 14.4% sequentially.

Winbond announced first-quarter DRAM revenue of $174 million, up 4.8% sequentially, while ProMOS’s revenue grew 37.4%.

Korean vendors’ share increase 0.8% to 54.6%. Japanese vendors’ share declined 1.9% to 17.7%, and American vendors’ share increased 2% to 14.3%, given better-than-average sales growth. Taiwanese vendors’ share was down 0.9% to 13.4% as a result of Nanya’s revenue decline.

TEMPE, AZ – US manufacturing grew in April for the ninth consecutive month, with the PMI up 0.8 percentage points to 60.4%, says the Institute for Supply Management. The rate of growth was the fastest since June 2004, when the index hit 60.5%.

A reading above 50% indicates the manufacturing economy is generally expanding.

New orders jumped 4.2 points to 65.7%, and production was up 5.8 points to 66.9%. Inventories were down 5.9 percentage points to 49.4%, while customer inventories dipped 6 points to 33%. Backlogs were down a slight 0.5 points to 57.5%. Employment registered its fifth consecutive month of growth.

“The manufacturing sector grew for the ninth consecutive month during April,” said ISM spokesperson Norbert J. Ore. “Manufacturers continue to see extraordinary strength in new orders, as the New Orders Index has averaged 61.6% for the past 10 months. Overall, the recovery in manufacturing continues quite strong, and the signs are positive for continued growth.”

The overall economy grew for the 12th consecutive month.