The World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) has released its updated semiconductor market forecast. WSTS anticipates the world semiconductor market to show a solid growth of 9% up to US$333 billion in 2014, driven mainly by double digit growth of memory product category. All other major product categories are also forecasted to have positive growth rates. The highest growth rates are shown for the memory (17.3%), discretes (12.3%) and analog (10.3%) categories. By geography, all regions will grow from 2013. The semiconductor market growth will be largely driven by smartphones and automotive.
As regards to 2015 and 2016 – WSTS said -, all product categories and regions are forecasted to grow steadily but moderately, under the assumption of a further macro economy recovery throughout the entire forecast period and maturing historically strong markets. Worldwide semiconductor market is forecasted to be up 3.4% to US$345 billion in 2015. For 2016, the market is forecasted to be US$355 billion, up 3.1%. Regionally, Asia-Pacific will continue to be the fastest growing region and is expected to reach US$209 billion in 2016, which is already a share of almost 60% of the total semiconductor market.
