Analyzing the Recovery
McClean, Bill
(IC Insights)
The IC industry is poised for an impressive rebound and solid growth in 2010! Unit demand remains strong, 300mm fabs are running near capacity, and IC average selling prices are headed higher. For the first time in a long while, companies in the IC industry have reason to be upbeat about the coming year.
Global recessions should be thought of as periods of u201cpent-upu201d demand for electronic systems. Although these severe downturns always cause a temporary push-out of electronic system purchases, they do not destroy the underlying desire to purchase.
Global recessions typically set the stage for a booming IC market. Over the past 30 years, the world has endured four global recessions, and after every one of these recessions, a booming IC market immediately followed! Moreover, the strong IC market that followed the global recession has always lasted at least two years.
IC Insights will examine the relationship between worldwide GDP, electronic system sales, the IC market, and IC unit volume shipments and present its 2010 forecast for each of these segments.