Electronics Industry Update

-- Semiconductor International, 8/1/1999

The dollar value of worldwide semiconductor sales fell 18.8% between March and April, following a pattern seen in every year of this decade. Previous March-to-April sales decreases in the 1990s ranged from a low of 6.5% in 1994 to 24.4% in 1997. The average has been 14.1%. Between March and April last year, sales dropped 18.6%.

Compared with a year ago, April sales volume improved in all but one of the world's regions. The value of April chip sales to Europe was 2.2% lower than in April, 1998. For the first four months of this year, chip sales to Europe were 2.1% ahead of a year ago. Sales to North America were 8.3% above the year-ago level in April and 5.7% ahead of 1998 for the first third of the year.

Meanwhile, after declining almost 20% last year, cumulative sales to the Japanese market for the first four months of 1999 were up 10.1% from that period in 1998. April's sales to Japan were 16.5% better than April, 1998. April sales to the rest of the Asia/Pacific region were up 14.2% from a year ago, and January-April sales there were up 12.5% from the 1998 level.