World Chip Plants Run at Fastest Rate in 4 Years

The world’s chip factories operated at their fastest rate in almost four years in the April-June period, boosted by demand for chips for cellphones and digital appliances such as flat-panel TVs, an industry group said.

Factories ran at an average of 95.4% of capacity, which marked a sixth straight quarterly increase, the Semiconductor International Capacity Statistics group said.

The rate was the highest since it hit 96.4% in the third quarter of 2000.

After a boom that year, the semiconductor market went into a severe downturn in 2001 and 2002.