Global semiconductor sales reached US$464 billion in 2020, an increase of 10.8%

On the morning of May 7th, Beijing time, market research firm IDC released a semiconductor application forecast report. Although the new crown has swept the world, global semiconductor sales in 2020 will still reach US$464 billion, an increase of 10.8% over 2019. Global sales in 2021 are expected to reach US$522 billion, a year-on-year increase of 12.5%.

Global semiconductor supply will remain tight throughout 2021. Although the shortage initially appeared in the automotive industry, chips with older processes are also affected. The computing system semiconductor market (such as PCs and servers) is growing faster than other semiconductor markets, with sales in this market increasing 17.3% to $160 billion in 2020. Shane Rau, vice president of computing semiconductor research at IDC, pointed out: "Demand for PC processors remains strong, especially in value-oriented areas. The PC processor market performed well in the first quarter and may be good throughout the year." IDC believes that revenue from the computing system semiconductor market will reach $173 billion this year, a year-on-year increase of 7.7%.

Looking at the mobile phone semiconductor market, although shipments decreased by more than 10% in 2020, revenue increased by 9.1%. In 2021, 5G mobile phones will account for 34% of all mobile phone shipments, and 5G mobile phone semiconductors will account for two-thirds of the entire market revenue, so this year is particularly important for semiconductor suppliers. IDC predicts that mobile phone semiconductor sales will increase by 23.3% in 2021 to US$147 billion.

The consumer semiconductor market showed signs of rebounding in 2020. Due to the popularity of game consoles, tablets, wireless headphones, smart watches, and OTT streaming devices, the revenue of the entire market segment increased by 7.7% to US$60 billion. Last year, global automobile sales began to recover, but the shortage of semiconductors affected production capacity, and the United States and Europe became the hardest hit areas. IDC predicts that automotive semiconductor sales will increase by 13.6% in 2021.

Overall, a "super cycle" began to emerge in the second half of 2019, and this cycle will continue this year, and the semiconductor industry will still maintain a high growth trend.