Having had a chance to ponder the numbers, market researchers are cautiously forecasting continued recovery for the chip industry.
"Noteworthy improvements in market conditions during the last few weeks confirm that the industry is continuing its recovery as expected and is about to enter a more accelerated growth phase," said Gartner today.
The reason? Wafer fab utilisation is now over 80 per cent, foundry wafer pricing is up and silicon demand is increasing, the researcher notes. Higher utilisation is being experienced by chip packaging and assembly specialists too.
Driving the recovery going forward will be a revival of corporate IT spending, for which there are early signs, Gartner said. Alongside that, consumer spending hasn't tailed off any further. However, there remains excess capacity in the telecomms sector, so with inhibited spending there, we shouldn't expect the chip business to grow rapidly, the company warned.
Source : The Register
"Noteworthy improvements in market conditions during the last few weeks confirm that the industry is continuing its recovery as expected and is about to enter a more accelerated growth phase," said Gartner today.
The reason? Wafer fab utilisation is now over 80 per cent, foundry wafer pricing is up and silicon demand is increasing, the researcher notes. Higher utilisation is being experienced by chip packaging and assembly specialists too.
Driving the recovery going forward will be a revival of corporate IT spending, for which there are early signs, Gartner said. Alongside that, consumer spending hasn't tailed off any further. However, there remains excess capacity in the telecomms sector, so with inhibited spending there, we shouldn't expect the chip business to grow rapidly, the company warned.
Source : The Register
