Global semiconducter sales soar

Worldwide sales of semiconductors increased by 7.2% in November compared to the same month in 2004, the Semiconducter Industry Association (SIA) said Tuesday.

November sales were 20.4 billion dollars. Sales were up 1.7% sequentially from the 20.1 billion dollars reported for October.

“Strong holiday season sales of consumer products such as cell phones, digital cameras, and MP3 players drove record sales of semiconductors in November,” said SIA President George Scalise.

“Sales of flash memory devices – a key component in many hand-held consumer products – were up by 33% from November 2004. Sales of application-specific standard circuits, another proxy for consumer products, were up by nearly 34 percent year-on-year,” he said.