Sales of semiconductors touched $30.5 billion in October 2016, up 3.4 percent from $29.5 billion in September 2016 and up 5.1 percent from $29 billion in October 2015.
Meanwhile, the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization forecast projects roughly flat sales growth in the global semiconductor market in 2016 and a small increase in semiconductor market growth in 2017 and 2018.
WSTS forecasts 3.3 percent growth for 2017 ($346.1 billion in total sales) and 2.3 percent growth for 2018 ($354.0 billion).
John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association, said: “Sales grew compared to last month across all regional markets and nearly every major semiconductor product category.”
Regionally, year-to-year sales of semiconductor increased in China (14 percent), Japan (7.2 percent), Asia Pacific / All Other (1.9 percent), and the Americas (0.1 percent), but decreased in Europe (3 percent).
Compared with last month, semiconductor sales were up across all regional markets: the Americas (6.5 percent), China (3.2 percent), Japan (3.0 percent), Europe (2.2 percent), and Asia Pacific/All Other (2.0 percent).
WSTS Autumn 2016 global semiconductor sales forecast projects the industry’s semiconductor sales will be $335 billion in 2016, a 0.1 percent decrease from the 2015 sales total.
WSTS projects a year-to-year increase in Japan (3.2 percent) and Asia Pacific (2.5 percent), with decreases expected in Europe (4.9 percent) and the Americas (6.5 percent).
Among major semiconductor product categories, WSTS forecasts growth in 2016 for sensors (22.6 percent), discretes (4.2 percent), analog (4.8 percent) and MOS micro ICs (2.3 percent), which include microprocessors and microcontrollers.
