February Chip Sales: I Call Bottom… Until the Next Bottom

If it is chip sales that will lead the recovery, don’t expect one for quite some time. World-wide sales of semiconductors slumped 30 percent to $14.2 billion in February, the Semiconductor Industry Association said Friday. That’s down 7.6 percent from January levels. (Click on the chart below for the gruesome details.)

Clearly, chip sales are tanking and we’re now well on our way to the depths plumbed back in 2001-2002. “The global semiconductor industry is going through one of the steepest corrections in its history,” said SIA President George Scalise. “While it would be premature to conclude that the sales decline has hit bottom, there are some indications that the rate of decline has moderated from the final quarter of 2008.”

Well, that’s reassuring…