Semiconductor industry down by 12%, better than feared

Sales of chips will reach a real low this year. According to the latest surveys we can expect the total revenue of the semiconductor industry to drop by 12.4 percent compared to 2008. This is about 32 billion dollar in lost revenue, which is a very poor result, but still far better than expectations. By the start of the year there were predictions of drops by as much as 20 percent.

The only one of the twenty largest semiconductor manufacturers that have managed to grow in 2009 is Samsung Electronics, but only by 1.3%.