El Segundo, Calif. — After six consecutive quarters of sequential growth, global semiconductor revenue shrank by 3.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010 over the previous period, reported IHS iSuppli. The market research firm says this is the first quarterly retreat since the beginning of 2009.
Revenues for the 298 semiconductor suppliers tracked by the IHS iSuppli Competitive Landscaping Tool (CLT) fell to $77.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010, down from $80.1 billion in the previous quarter. However, the lower revenue still was 11.9 percent higher than the $69.0 billion posted in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to the IHS report.
“The last time a sequential decline happened in the semiconductor industry was during the recent global economic downturn,” said Dale Ford of IHS, in a statement. “Following steep declines of 21.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 and 18.0 percent in the first quarter of 2009, semiconductor revenues began to increase in the second quarter of 2009 and then rose every quarter until the fourth quarter of 2010.”
Despite the fourth-quarter contraction, semiconductor revenues rose by $74.5 billion in 2010, setting a new record and surpassing the prior record increase of $59.2 billion during the dot-com bubble of 2000, said IHS. The market researcher says the record for highest annual percentage growth in the industry remains the 36.7 percent increase seen in 2000.