SAN JOSE – The Semiconductor Industry Association is calling on Congress to put aside its differences and agree on a plan to address the financial crisis.
“There is broad agreement that the federal government must take action promptly to address the current financial crisis,” said SIA president George Scalise in a press release. “The issues that contributed to the failure of the recovery legislation Monday can be resolved, but it will take bipartisan cooperation.
SIA said Congress must restore consumer confidence by taking action on a recovery package this week. “Consumer demand accounts for more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy,” Scalise said. “A slowdown in sales of a broad range of consumer products such as personal computers, cellphones, and entertainment electronics would have an adverse impact on semiconductor sales in the fourth quarter, which is normally the strongest quarter for the chip industry.
“The entire supply chain including our suppliers and customers will be harmed if access to credit becomes difficult. Restoring consumer confidence must be a top-priority in crafting legislation that can achieve strong bipartisan support. As long as consumers have major concerns about job security, the value of their retirement portfolios, and their home equity, consumer spending could be curtailed, leading to an overall economic slowdown,” he said.
SAN JOSE – Global sales of semiconductors grew 5.5% year-over-year to $22.7 billion in August. Sales were up 2.4% from July on demand for PCs and mobile phones, the SIA said. For the year through August, sales were $170.2 billion, up 4.5% from 2007.
“Global sales of semiconductors remained strong in August,” said SIA President George Scalise. “Sales of personal computers and cellular handsets continued to be the principal drivers of demand."
Price pressure on memory is slowing revenue growth. Excluding memory products, industry sales were up 11.4% year-on-year in August. Year-to-date sales were 4.5% ahead of last year and remain in line with the SIA mid-year forecast of 4.3%.
PC unit sales are projected to grow by more than 13% in 2008, says Credit Suisse. Unit sales grew 9.1% year-on-year in August, a modest slowdown from July. Worldwide unit sales of cellular handsets remained strong – especially in emerging markets. Unit sales of cellular handsets are forecast to grow about 10% in 2008, with the strongest growth coming from emerging markets.
Earlier this week, SIA urged Congress to pass a financial package to bail out Wall Street banks overwhelmed by bad mortgage debt. “With consumer purchases now driving more than half of semiconductor sales, consumer confidence is essential to the entire supply chain of the global technology sector; thus it is essential for Congress to move swiftly to restore stability to the US financial system,” Scalise said.
LISLE, IL– Molex has revised its revenue and earnings per share outlook for the September quarter. The company sites “reduced demand” from telecommunication and automotive markets for the change. In addition, business from industrial and consumer electronics customers has not met expectations due to the unstable global market. Molex cut the range of its fiscal Q1 revenue forecast of $860 million to $880 million down to $840 million to $845 million.
TOKYO– Matsushita Electric Industrial (MEIC)will now be referred to as Panasonic. The company recently adopted the name of its
well-recognized brand as part of a digital network product strategy for the
global market. The change will reflect Panasonic’s unified brand positioning.
With all employees working under one name–and one brand–the company believes
this will bring a greater stature and merit to corporate management. “The collective
wisdom will be much easier to cultivate compared to the past,” explains Fumio
Ohtsubo, MEIC (Panasonic) president.
Gone is the “National” home appliance brand, with all white
goods, electronics and component parts now under the Panasonic name. This is
the final part of a multi-year plan that saw the elimination of Quasar and
Technics. “Now we have one brand. Under one brand, we can propose a total
solution for our daily lives,” says Ohtsubo. Panasonic’s development strategies
for the future include development of device technologies for a wide array of
applications, innovations in products and technologies for digital networks and
an increase in environmental responsibility.
SAN JOSE -- The current slowdown in chip production will be tied to the depth and length of the US financial crisis, an industry researcher asserts in the latest issue of the SEMI newsletter.
And while more fabs should come online next year, plans could be postponed if the economy fails to improve, says George Burns of Strategic Marketing Associates.
The number of new fabs dropped this year to 20, from 33 a year ago, and the investment in those facilities fell 65% to $15 billion. That figure is forecast to double to $30 billion, says Burns, but might be flat should the situation remain sour.
Moreover, the economic slog will hamper chip sales for the rest of 2007. Burns says equipment sales to memory manufacturers, which make up 50% of semiconductor equipment sales, should pick up by the second quarter of next year, leading to an uptick in sales the following quarter. But it's unlikely to be enough to drive overall equipment spending higher.
While chip sales were good for the first half, Burns finds it unlikely the situation will hold. The timing could hurt, as the third quarter is traditionally the strongest for chip sales. "Chip sales growth will inevitably fall below average for the remainder of this year, at least," Burns writes.
Equipment sales, which have slumped over the past four quarters, including a 26% nosedive in the June quarter, will rise or fall based on chip sales. And the situation is murkier than in years past, Burns says. "Because the entire global economy is involved, today's level of uncertainty is higher than it has been in years, if not decades. Still, with a little bit of luck, the fabs planned for next year will actually come online and the industry will began another cycle of growth."
WASHINGTON, DC – TechNet, the bipartisan political network of CEOs that promotes the growth of the innovation economy, today urged Congress to approve the economic rescue package now under consideration.
"We urge Congress to approve the economic rescue package now before the Senate," said Lezlee Westine, president and CEO of TechNet. "Not only is the bill essential to stabilizing our nation's economy, but it also includes vitally important tax incentives for clean energy and research and development that can help create thousands of high skilled jobs in America.
"We strongly believe the financial package before Congress is far too important to the stability of our economy to let fail," said Westine in a press release. "This measure is not just for financial services, and if no action is taken will hurt businesses across every sector because we are all affected by problems in the credit markets. The ramifications would quickly boomerang throughout the whole US economy and we simply cannot let that happen."
