Chip Sales Rise 23% in 4th Quarter, Group Says

Worldwide microchip sales rose 23% in last year’s fourth quarter and will grow in 2003, boosted by demand for mobile phones, the Semiconductor Industry Assn. said Monday.

Sales increased to $37.6 billion from the same period a year earlier. For 2002, sales rose 1.3% to $140.7 billion, the group said.

Revenue this year will jump 20% to $169.3 billion as companies resume spending on computers, according to the association.

Chip sales fell 32% in 2001, the industry’s steepest decline, and in July had their first year-on-year increase since February 2001.

Wireless telephone sales were spurred by growth in China, where about 5 million subscribers are added each month, the group said.

“We think 2003 will be the year of growth after 2002 was the recovery year,” George Scalise, the association’s president, said during a conference call.

Sales of digital signal processors, the chips that power many mobile phones and other consumer electronics, grew 14% in 2002 to $4.9 billion from $4.3 billion in 2001.

Texas Instruments Inc. is the world’s largest maker of those kinds of semiconductors.

Personal computers are the biggest users of chips, accounting for about 30% of sales, according to the association. Spending by corporations on computer hardware will increase this year, Scalise said, adding that consumer purchases of devices such as DVD players and digital cameras helped boost sales last year.