Automotive semicon industry to grow at 11.5 p.c.

BANGALORE, INDIA: The demand for automotive semiconductor in 2012 is forecasted to grow at 11.5 percent with a Rs. 14,754.10 crore ($2.7 billion) market expansion, as predicted by Strategy Analytics.

Despite the short term uncertainties reeling in the market, the automotive semiconductor market will get good growth opportunities considering the automotive industry megatrends of environment, safety, information and the demand for affordable cars in emerging markets.

The global semiconductor industry is expected to drive market revenue CAGR of 9.3 per cent over the five year period 2011 to 2016. In 2011, the global automotive semiconductor market was worth Rs.1.30 lakh crore ($23.7 billion).

Both mature and emerging vehicle markets are increasingly adopting electronically controlled features and this will contribute to the growth of the overall semiconductor industry. The major growth regions for this industry segment will be North America, Japan, Thailand and the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) nations, where a hike in demand for semiconductors has been witnessed due to growth in vehicle production.

"The automotive semiconductor revenue growth in 2012 is largely due to improvements in the North American and China markets, plus the industry recovery rebound from natural disasters in Japan and Thailand in 2011. Electronics innovations in areas like hybrid and pure electric vehicles, advanced safety, connected car and driver information will be responsible for sustaining long term automotive semiconductor growth," stated Chris Webber, VP Global Automotive Practice at Strategy Analytics.

"Clearly there is a degree of uncertainty in a number of regional markets, with the on-going Eurozone sovereign debt crisis having the greatest potential to undermine the short term outlook,” said Mark Fitzgerald, Associate Director Global Automotive Practice.