Review of the semiconductor industry temporarily stagnant or slow down

Semiconductor industry is temporarily in stagnation, or to slow growth? Perhaps it is too early to conclude, but the current IC market seems to have fallen into a weak boom environment.

Course, there are many signals mixed in the market. For example, on the one hand, market research firm recently raised the semiconductor market growth rate in 2006 from 10.6% to 10.9%. But on the other hand, Gartner also mentioned the key and IC on several industrial situation conflicting indicators in the report: the report said the prospect of the semiconductor industry such as the third quarter seems good, but the fourth quarter may be weak; 2006 area calculation by silicon wafer demand will grow 18%, growth of 4% in 2007, but the poly the continuous shortage, and is still a major problem; Gartner Dataquest semiconductor inventory index second quarter from 1.07 in the first quarter rose to 1.10, which is located in the upper end of the 'normal' range."

Wedbush Morgan Securities Inc. is an analyst and summarizes the current boom situation, he said: "taking into account the gross profit index is well maintained, and maintain a healthy level of supply chain inventory, especially OEM and EMS customer inventory level is normal, so the industry downturn is not typical, but in a period of adjustment the weak." Berger reiterated his forecast that the IC market will grow by 9% in 2006. He said the overall chip shipments reached a peak in July, the annual growth rate will reach 13%, compared with the historical situation, which is a relatively low-key vertex."

As usual, each product in the field of performance is not a. For example, in the field of memory, DRAM sell very well. Market research firm Gartner said: "we expect the second half of 2006 and most of the time in 2007, the industry will be in short supply." Low density NOR flash device supplies tight, but NAND flash is still in excess supply. Gartner expects NAND demand to grow by September. In recent weeks, the price of NAND is very bad.

Not all market with growth potential. PC based microprocessor is facing a seasonal downturn. National Semiconductor last week lowered its quarterly performance forecast and blamed the slowdown in the growth of the wireless industry.

American Technology Research analyst Doug Freedman said: "taking into account during the summer orders fell sharply, national semiconductor for performance prediction may be very cautious." He said, we believe that wireless sales growth is weak, part of the decline in the proportion of new mobile phones, flying Carle and TI are expected to expand its share of the first tier OEM customers." Other manufacturers are also being dragged down by the slowdown in the wireless industry, including those leading manufacturers. Pacific Growth Equities analyst Satya Chillara, prior to the initial investment of TI stock rating to "neutral", referring to "the fourth quarter consumer demand / wireless alarming".

Separation and power management products still demand, especially for International Rectifier Corporation (IR) for. Berger said: it is understood that, in the distribution channels, IR chip supply of goods is still very tight, the recent FET price rose to two digits, part of the delivery date extended to 20-26 weeks." He said in the report: "the IR supply tensions, reflected a strong game and Intel server platform requirements, but also reflects the company to improve the planning and implementation of new factory production is not good enough."

In the emerging field of medical equipment, Medtronic announced an implantable defibrillator (ICD) shipments lower than expected, which could make the Microsemi Corp. chip manufacturers affected. Berger said: Microsemi sales of 15% from the ICD chip, which may make some investors feel uneasy, but we think the terminal market weakness should be well known."