A Better Year Lies Ahead, says IC Insights

Semiconductor sales are forecast to grow 4% in 2016 by IC Insights which expects IC sales to increase 4%, and sales of optoelectronics, sensors, and discrete (OSD) devices to collectively grow by l5%.

By David Manners - Electronics Weekly, Feb. 11, 2016 – 

Total semiconductor unit shipments (including IC and OSD devices) reached almost 840 billion units in 2015 and are expected to exceed one trillion units in 2018.

After increasing 4% in 2015, IC unit shipments are forecast to grow 5% in 2016. Analogue devices are forecast to account for 53% of total IC unit shipments in 2016.

A stable IC pricing environment is expected through 2020 due in part to fewer suppliers in various IC markets (i.e., DRAM, MPU, etc.), lower capital spending as a percent of sales, and no significant new IC manufacturers entering the market in the future (the surge of Chinese IC companies that entered the market in the early 2000's is assumed to be the last large group of newcomers.

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