SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — IC Insights Inc. on Monday (July 7) slightly lowered its semiconductor forecast for 2003, but it also raised its outlook for unit shipments for the year.
The market researchers originally projected that the worldwide semiconductor market would grow 15 percent in 2003 over 2002 (see Oct. 22, 2002 story ). It now believes the market will reach $136.4 billion in sales during 2003, a 13 percent growth rate over 2002.
Worldwide IC unit shipments are expected to reach 90.3 billion in 2003, surpassing the previous record of 86.5 billion registered during the boom year of 2000, according to a company report.
IC units are expected to grow 15 percent in 2003 over 2002, according to the report. That represents an increase of 4 percentage points from IC Insights' previous 2003 IC unit volume forecast of 11 percent growth.
Although chip unit volume shipments are projected to set new records in 2003, IC dollar volume sales this year are still expected to fall far short of the all-time high of $176.9 billion set in 2000.
IC unit volume shipments are forecast to grow at 15 percent in 2004. IC Insights forecasts that 2004 IC unit volume shipments will exceed 100 billion, another all-time record high.
