Worldwide sales of semiconductors reached US$439 billion in 2020, up 6.5% on year, according to SIA.
Sales were US$39.2 billion in December 2020, up 8.3% from a year earlier but down 2% sequentially, SIA said. Sales for the fourth quarter totaled US$117.5 billion, rising 3.5% on quarter and 8.3% from the same period in 2019.
"Global semiconductor sales increased moderately on an annual basis in 2020, weathering a challenging macroeconomic environment brought on by the pandemic and other factors," said John Neuffer, SIA president and CEO.
On a regional basis, sales into the Americas market stood out increasing annually by 19.8% in 2020, SIA noted. China remained the largest individual market for semiconductors, with sales totaling US$151.7 billion in 2020, an increase of 5.0%.
Annual sales also increased in 2020 in Asia Pacific/All Other (5.3%) and Japan (1.0%), but declined 6% in Europe, according to SIA.
In December, sales grew slightly compared to the prior month in Asia Pacific/All Other (0.8%) and Japan (0.1%), but fell in Europe (-0.2%), the Americas (-3.0%), and China (-4.5%), SIA said.
Several semiconductor product segments stood out in 2020, SIA indicated. Logic (US$117.5 billion) and memory (US$117.3 billion) were the largest semiconductor categories by sales last year. Annual sales of logic products increased by 10.3% compared to 2019, while sales of memory products were up 10.2%.
Within the memory category, sales of NAND flash products surged 23.1% on year to US$49.5 billion in 2020, SIA said. Sales of micro-ICs - a category that includes microprocessors - grew 4.8% to US$69.6 billion in 2020. Sales of all non-memory products combined increased by 5.2% in 2020.
