SCOTTSDALE, AZ – Despite rampant inflation, soaring energy costs, ongoing glitches in supply chains, recent Covid-19 virus lockdowns in China, and Russia’s war with Ukraine, IC Insights continues to anticipate an 11% increase in total semiconductor sales this year, the same growth rate forecast in January.  The semiconductor market is expected to reach record-high sales of $680.7 billion in 2022.

New data show higher gains in microprocessors and power discretes this year but lowers sales increases in optoelectronics, while the global economy faces greater risks.

Microcomponent ICs are forecast to grow 11% in 2022 year-over-year, driven by stronger microprocessor sales in the embedded MPU category, now up 12% versus 9%, previously, and in cellular application processors, rising 22%, which is significantly higher than 10% in the January forecast.

The overall projection of total IC sales growth in 2022 is unchanged and expected to rise 11% this year to a record-high $567.1 billion. Analog ICs will be up 12%, and logic integrated circuits will rise 11%, the research firm says.

IC Insights lowers this year’s forecast for total sales volume in the non-IC semiconductor market categories: optoelectronics, sensors and actuators, and discrete semiconductors, which account for about 17% of total semiconductor revenue worldwide. Total O-S-D sales are now expected to rise 9% to $113.6 billion, versus the previous projection of 11% growth in 2022. The new forecast cuts optoelectronics sales growth to 6% because of weak gains in CMOS image sensors and lamp devices (mostly LEDs). However, the weakness in optoelectronics is partly offset by stronger increases in discrete semiconductors, primarily because of higher increases in sales of power transistors, now expected to be up 11% in 2022, and diodes, projected to grow 10%, due to tight supplies worldwide and rising average selling prices.  

IC Insights’ 15% growth forecast for sensor/actuator semiconductors remains unchanged.

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