iSuppli Raises Global Semiconductor Revenue of 5 Billion U.S. Dollars This Year

Market research firm IHS-iSuppli raised its forecast for global semiconductor sales this year and raised it by $5 billion compared with the original forecast. The main reason is that the Japanese earthquake triggered a shortage of global semiconductor supply and stimulated the rise in the prices of memory chips.

IHS iSuppli's latest forecast, this year's global semiconductor industry's total revenue, from February's expected growth of 5.8% to 321 billion US dollars, increased to 7% to reach 325 billion US dollars.

iSuppli Corporation predicts that DRAM is affected by supply disruptions, and there is a clear trend of sudden price increases. The agency will forecast this year's DRAM sales growth from the previous decrease of 10.6% to a reduction of 4%.

Mike Howard, chief analyst of iSuppli’s memory business, pointed out that the earthquake in Japan caused global DRAM shipments to decrease by 1.1%. iSuppli expects the average contract price for DRAM this month to rise by 2%, a 3%-4% decline from the previous forecast. It is expected that the price pressure will ease in the second half of this year.

According to Reuters, more than one third of the global supply of NAND flash chips used in tablet computers and smart phones comes from Japan. At the same time, Japan accounts for 14% of global DRAM supply. In addition, Japan is also the world's largest supplier of semiconductor wafers, with production accounting for around 60% of the world's total.