SCOTTSDALE, Arizona --- Market research company IC Insights Inc. has lowered its forecasts for the worldwide semiconductor market in 2002 from 4% growth to 1% growth; and for 2003 it has trimmed its expectation from 24% growth to just 15% growth.
IC Insights now has the IC market, excluding discretes, as rising from $118.5 billion in 2001 to $119.8 billion in 2002.
IC Insights provides a top down analysis in its latest update which shows that worldwide GDP numbers are now likely to be less than previous estimates which in turn causes electronics systems sales and growth to be less in 2002 and 2003. IC Insights now estimates that electronic systems sales will contract by 6% in 2002 compared with 2001 and grow by 5% in 2003.
The update also highlights regional differences in the market. So in 2002 the Americas, Europe and Japan are still seeing their semiconductor markets diminishing --- by 12%, 10% and 8% respectively --- while the rest-of-the-world is now set to grow by 29%.
