Global Semiconductor Sales Increase 6.5% to $439 Billion in 2020

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The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) has announced the global semiconductor industry sales were $439.0 billion in 2020, an increase of 6.5% compared to the 2019 total of $412.3 billion. Global sales for the month of December 2020 were $39.2 billion, an increase of 8.3% compared to the December 2019 total and 2.0% less than the total from November 2020. Fourth-quarter sales of $117.5 billion were 8.3% more than the total from the fourth quarter of 2019 and 3.5% higher than the total from third quarter of 2020. Monthly sales are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average. SIA represents 98% of the U.S. semiconductor industry by revenue and nearly two-thirds of non-U.S. chip firms. 

“Global semiconductor sales increased moderately on an annual basis in 2020, weathering a challenging macroeconomic environment brought on by the pandemic and other factors,” said John Neuffer, SIA president and CEO. “While global demand for semiconductors is on the rise, the share of global chip production done in the U.S. has declined from 37% in 1990 to 12% today, and that disparity will only intensify without U.S. government action to level the global playing field. It’s imperative the federal government fully fund incentives for domestic chip manufacturing and investments in chip research so the U.S. can benefit from growing demand and produce more semiconductors needed to strengthen our economy, national security, and critical infrastructure.”

On a regional basis, sales into the Americas market stood out, increasing annually by 19.8% in 2020. China remained the largest individual market for semiconductors, with sales there totaling $151.7 billion in 2020, an increase of 5.0%. Annual sales also increased in 2020 in Asia Pacific/All Other (5.3%) and Japan (1.0%), but decreased in Europe (-6.0%). Sales for the month of December 2020 increased slightly compared to November 2020 in Asia Pacific/All Other (0.8%) and Japan (0.1%), but fell in Europe (-0.2%), the Americas (-3.0%), and China (-4.5%). 

Several semiconductor product segments stood out in 2020. Logic ($117.5 billion in 2020 sales) and memory ($117.3 billion) were the largest semiconductor categories by sales. Annual sales of logic products increased by 10.3% compared to 2019, while sales of memory products were up 10.2%. Within the memory category, annual sales of NAND flash products stood out, increasing 23.1% to $49.5 billion in 2020. Sales of micro-ICs — a category that includes microprocessors — increased 4.8% to $69.6 billion in 2020. Sales of all non-memory products combined increased by 5.2% in 2020 and that category reached an all-time high in total sales.