Semiconductor market to slow this year: iSuppli

Semiconductor industry revenue will grow at a slow pace this year due to struggling economies worldwide, lower spending and sluggish demand for products, research firm IHS iSuppli said in a new study.

Revenue for the semiconductor industry this year is expected to be $US323 billion, growing by just 3.3 per cent compared to last year's revenue, IHS iSuppli said.

"Because the world economy is not in a strong-enough position to drive growth, the semiconductor business is coming under pressure," said Len Jelinek, director and chief analyst of semiconductor manufacturing research at IHS iSuppli, in a statement.

The weak performance of the semiconductor market has continued from last year, and there are economic troubles in the US, Europe, Japan and China, Jelinek said.

Semiconductors are used in a range of products including PCs, smartphones, tablets, cars and medical devices. With consumers spending less, semiconductor demand will decrease and hurt revenue, Jelinek said.

Manufacturers will try to clear out semiconductor inventory and keep existing factories viable, iSuppli said. Any capital expenditure to boost production or upgrade factories will likely be pushed into 2013.

The weak demand for some products also will hurt demand for DRAM, iSuppli said. Revenue for the memory is expected to decline by 16.1 percent this year, which is slightly better than the 26.8 per cent fall last year.

A shortfall in the PC market has hurt memory demand, which has softened DDR3 RAM pricing this year. As PC prices remain under pressure, PC makers have been resistant to adding more RAM, which has led memory makers to move excess memory inventory to market rapidly. Some top DRAM makers like Samsung have also been suffering from yield and supply issues.

The market for NAND flash is "less rosy" despite the surging demand for devices like smartphones and tablets, iSuppli said. There is growing demand for NAND flash as storage requirements grow on mobile devices, but additional factory capacity to meet excess demand could lead to oversupply and likely pressure NAND flash revenue.

NAND flash prices have also been tumbling since 2010.

Semiconductor revenue growth will likely be negative in the first half and recover starting in the second half, iSuppli said.

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