WSTS (World Semiconductor Trade Statistics) forecasts that the global semiconductor market will show flattish growth of 0.2% to US$336 billion in 2015. For this year, growth in optoelectronics (12.1%), sensors (3.4%), and analog (2.5%) is expected to be partially offset by declines in discrete (-6.8%), micro (-1.5%), logic (-1.6%), and memory (-1%). By geography, for 2015, growth in Asia-Pacific should be offset by declines in Americas, Europe and Japan. Europe and Japan will show a decline in 2015 at the US$ based forecast, which is mainly based on the current FX effect between Euro/USD and Yen/USD. According to WSTS, the semiconductor market growth in 2015 is expected to be driven by analog signal converters (up 17%), communication analog (up 9%), 32b MCU (up 14%), automotive DSP (up 28%), display drivers (up 12%), touch screen controllers (up 31%), communications logic/short range (up 13%), optoelectronics (up 12%), and actuators (up 10%).
As regards to 2016, all major product categories (excluding memory) and all regions (except Europe) are forecasted to grow. For 2017, all major product categories and regions are expected to grow with the assumption of a rebound in the macro economy through the forecast period.
As a result, the worldwide semiconductor market is forecasted to be up 1.4% to US$341 billion in 2016, and up to 3.1% to US$352 billion in 2017, respectively. By end application, automotive and wireless communications are projected to grow faster than the total market, whereas consumer and computer are assumed to grow slower than the total market. By region, the Americas region is expected to show the highest growth rate for 2016 and 2017 and is expected to reach US$71 billion in 2016, which is a 21% share of the total semiconductor market.
Source: WSTS (Autumn forecasts)
