Global chip market growth crept higher in February

Market news | April 4, 2024

By Peter Clarke

semiconductor market sensors

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There were signs of potential fatigue in global chip market growth in numbers just published by the SIA for February. However, annual growth could continue to increase through the year on rising prices for AI chips in short supply.

The three-month moving average of the value of the global chip market was US$46.17 billion in February, up 16.3 percent compared with the same period a year before. The SIA reports figures as a three-month moving average based on data collected by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics organization.

This jump compares with an annual climb of 15.2 percent in January. This compared with an 11.6 percent rise for the month before, and 5.3 percent increase the month before that.

The small rise in February could be an indication that the market could be nearing a peak in annual growth.

Or it could represent a slight pause before market growth goes yet higher. Much will depend on the ability of the supply chain to provide AI processors and memory and how average selling prices move in the remainder of the year.

Current forecasts for the annual growth of the 2024 global chip market vary between about 13 and 20 percent.

The long-running tale of two trends

The market continues to be heavily bipolar in nature with the markets in Europe and Japan contracting – by 3.4 and 8.5 percent, respectively – while the Americas, China and Asia-Pacific excluding China and Japan show strong growth.

The Americas regional market – predominantly the US – was up by 22.0 percent, a slight improvement on January’s figure of 20.3 percent. China is the largest and fastest growing geographical market. China’s 3MMA for February was US$14.13 billion, almost one third of the global total and up by 28.8 percent.

The Asia-Pacific market is approximately the same size as the Americas, with a 3MMA of US$12.00 billion in February, up 15.4 percent on an annual basis.

Three-month average of chip sales by geographic region for February and January 2024. Source: SIA/WSTS

“Although month-to-month sales were down slightly, global semiconductor sales in February remained well ahead of the total from the same month last year, a continuation of the strong year-to-year growth the market has experienced since the middle of last year,” said John Neuffer, CEO of the SIA in a statement. “Sales in February increased on a year-to-year basis by the largest percentage since May 2022, and market growth is projected to persist during the remainder of the year.”

Monthly data is given by the SIA as a three-month average although the source of the data, WSTS, tracks sales monthly basis. The SIA and other regional semiconductor industry bodies opt to use averaged data because it evens out the actual data that typically shows troughs at the beginnings of quarters and peaks at the ends of quarters.