Following a 2.5 percent decline in 2012, the global semiconductor market has regained its footing in 2013 with revenue set to expand by nearly 5 percent because of the strong performance of the memory sector.
Global semiconductor sales in 2013 will amount to $317.9 billion, up 4.9 percent from $302.9 billion in 2012, according to preliminary estimates from the Semiconductor Value Chain service at IHS. Market growth is being driven by the strong expansion of the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and NAND flash memory markets, which are expected to rise by 35.0 percent and 27.7 percent, respectively, in 2013.
Partly because of its success in the booming DRAM and NAND markets, U.S.-based Micron Technology Inc. will grow by an industry-leading 109.2 percent in 2013, catapulting the company up the semiconductor market's ranks to No. 4 in 2013, rising from No. 10 in 2012.
Memory chips have come to the rescue of the semiconductor business in 2013. In particular, solid pricing and expanding demand for DRAM and NAND in smartphones and tablets have caused revenue for these memory devices to surgeA transient variation in the current and/or potential at a point in the circuit.. Without these two high-performing product segments, the semiconductor industry would attain zero growth this year.