"It’s still really trending very strongly towards increased
demand. We're just not going to get this kind of slingshot
effect that we had in the pandemic," said SIA CEO John Neuffer
of the much slower growth projected for 2022.
Sales in 2020 grew 6.8% over the prior year, while 2021 was the
first year since 2018 that the number of chips sold exceeded 1
trillion, he said.
While major semiconductor manufacturers such as Taiwan
Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, Samsung Electronics Co, and
Intel Corp have announced tens of billions of dollars in
investments for new factories in the past year, Neuffer said the
digitalization trend ramped up by the pandemic would continue to
drive demand higher.
“We think in the foreseeable future that there’s going to be
plenty of demand for us to do very, very aggressive plant
construction,” he said.
In 2021 1.15 trillion semiconductors were sold, with the biggest
growth among auto-grade chips that can withstand heat and other
physical challenges, Neuffer said. Sales for that segment rose
34% over the prior year at $26.4 billion. Unit sales rose 33%,
he said.
China remained the largest individual market for semiconductors,
with sales totaling $192.5 billion in 2021, an increase of
27.1%, the SIA said.
(Reporting by Jane Lanhee Lee; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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