Todd Bishop
The Global Semiconductor Trade Statistics Organization (WSTS) estimates that the market size will shrink by 12% year-on-year to $412 billion in 2019.
WSTS is making major changes this time, and the last estimate of the market size in 2019 is in the fall of 2018, when the market is expected to grow by 2.6%. The reason for the pessimism is that the trade friction between China and the United States and the impact of Brexit have made the economy unclear, which in turn has led to a decline in demand for electronic consumer products.
Declining demand for mobile phones and data centers affects memory sales
In addition to the international situation, WSTS also pointed out that smartphone demand is close to saturation, which is the reason for the downward revision. At the same time, the US data center, which purchased a large number of semiconductors in 2018, switched to destocking this year.
The impact of mobile phones and data centers is that the demand for memory semiconductors in both markets has slowed significantly. The market size is expected to fall by 30.6% year-on-year to US$109.5 billion, and these products account for 30% of the overall market, thus shrinking the overall market size.
The price of DRAM and NAND fell by about 30% in about half a year.
