Q2 Chip Sales Not Too Horribly Awful

Looks like the semiconductor industry has finally found a bottom from which to scramble upward.

In the second quarter, chip sales registered their fourth consecutive monthly increase, the Semiconductor Industry Association said today, suggesting that we may be seeing the beginning of a gradual recovery in the industry. Though worldwide chip sales fell 20 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, they rose 17 percent from the first quarter. And June sales, which totaled $17.2 billion, were 3.7 percent higher from May (click on chart to enlarge).

The chip market is still lousy, but it’s clearly improving. Said SIA President George Scalise: “The fourth-consecutive monthly increase in sales is one indicator the industry is returning to normal seasonal growth patterns.”

Scalise added that focused supply chain management by both producers and customers has done much to temper the impact of the econalypse on the industry. “Inventories have been closely managed, encouraging us to believe that the sequential increase in quarterly sales represents a gradual recovery of demand,” he added.