March Global semiconductor Sales amount of 23.3 billion U.S. dollars, the year-on-year decrease of 7.95%

Wind data show that March global semiconductor sales amount of 23.3 billion U.S. dollars, the year-on-year decrease of 7.95%. Although sales in February fell 7.28% year-on-year, the first decline in 22 months narrowed, but March data is still weak, the industry rebound speed is not as expected optimism.

From the chain data, 2000 to date in the 13 years, March, the average growth rate of 2.4%, and March this year only 1.83%, March seasonal effect is weaker than in previous years; from the whole industry 13 years of composite growth, the average annual compound increase of 3.7%, This also means that the current industry growth rate is far from the normal year level.

The current industry fundamentals are still not optimistic, such as mobile phone terminal demand recovery is slow, industry inventory is high, low capacity utilization and new production capacity will be released and other factors are restricting the rapid recovery of the main obstacles.

Global handset sales fell slightly in the first quarter. The market has been widely expected this year the global handset sales will reach 1.6 billion, up from 5% to 7%. But IDC, a market-research firm, reported last week that global handsets are currently selling 398 million units, down 1.49% year-on-year, slightly below market expectations.

New capacity release, capacity utilization is not high. 2011 Global Semiconductor Capital equipment expenditure reached 44.8 billion U.S. dollars, compared with 2010 40.6 billion U.S. dollars in expenditure, an increase of 10.2%. According to the analysis, the semiconductor industry fixed assets leading total capacity of 1 to 2 quarters, and semiconductor equipment expenditure leading fixed assets 1 to 2 quarters. In other words, 2011 of semiconductor equipment spending will be converted into effective capacity this year. By 2010, the impact of new capacity, the current global semiconductor capacity utilization is only 86.2%. As mentioned above, 2012 global new capacity is still high, which means that capacity utilization will continue to be more relaxed, some of the capacity of idle directly pull down the company's gross margin level.

To sum up, the industry supply and demand both sides are facing greater pressure. In the 4th quarter of 2011, the average number of days of semiconductors in the world Rose 3.4% to 84.1 days from 81.3 days in the first quarter to a 2001-year high of 1th quarter, according to the ISUPPLI survey. Although industry inventories have begun to digest in the 1th quarter of 2012, digestion is not obvious. Global semiconductor inventories are still relatively high, and large replenishment stocks are hard to come by, and the semiconductor industry's recovery is still a long way off.