According to estimates from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), global semiconductor industry sales will drop by approximately US$47 billion in 2023 to nearly US$527 billion. That’s a sharp decline from a record 2022, but the good news is that sales picked up significantly in the second half of the year, showing signs of a strong recovery and positive expectations for the future.
The value of chips supplied by the semiconductor industry in 2023 is US$526.8 billion, a decrease of 8.2% from the historical high of US$574.1 billion in 2022. The slowdown in chip sales in the first half was due to inventory adjustments in the client PC, consumer electronics and server industries. Meanwhile, chip sales jumped to $146 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, an increase of 11.6% from the fourth quarter of 2022 and an increase of 8.4% from the third quarter of 2023. According to statistics, sales in December also reached US$48.6 billion, an increase of 1.5% from November. Singapore Airlines.
In terms of product categories, logic products (CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, and similar devices that process data) led the way with sales of $178.5 billion, making it the industry’s largest segment with sales exceeding all three other segments Sum. Memory followed closely with revenue of $92.3 billion, a result of lower 3D NAND and DRAM prices in the first half. In both cases, sales were down year over year.
In contrast, sales of microcontroller units (MCUs) and automotive integrated circuits (ICs) increased by 11.4% and 23.7% year-on-year respectively, with MCU revenue reaching $27.9 billion and automotive ICs hitting a new high of $42.2 billion. Strong shipments of MCUs and automotive ICs point to rapidly growing chip demand from manufacturers of automobiles and various smart devices, as these industries now use more semiconductors than ever before.
“Global semiconductor sales were sluggish in early 2023, but rebounded strongly in the second half of the year, with the market expected to achieve double-digit growth in 2024,” said John Neuffer, SIA president and CEO. “As chips play a role in countless products the world relies on, A larger and more important role, the long-term prospects for the semiconductor market are very strong.”
In terms of chip sales in different regions around the world, Europe was the only region where sales increased, with an increase of 4%. Other regions fared less well: Chip sales fell 5.2% in the Americas, 3.1% in Japan, and China had the largest decline, at 14%, according to SIA.
“Government policies that advance investment in R&D, strengthen the semiconductor workforce, and reduce trade barriers will help the industry continue to grow and innovate for many years to come,” Neufer said.
Charts generated by DALL-E/OpenAI based on data from SIA