Gartner sees 2009 chip market down 11.4 p.c

HELSINKI, FINLAND: Research firm Gartner raised its view for the semiconductor market in 2009 as the economy recovers but said on Thursday the market was still set to fall 11.4 per cent to $226 billion.

Gartner had in October forecast a 17 per cent fall.

"The PC segment was the first to spring back, followed later in the year by other segments reflecting consumer sentiment, like cellphones and automobiles," Stephan Ohr, semiconductor research director at Gartner, said in a statement.

"Corporate spending was most deeply impacted by the recession and remains slow to recover," he said.

The world's largest semiconductor maker Intel will see its market share rise slightly to 14.2 per cent, Gartner said.

No 2 chip firm Samsung Electronics and No 7 Hynix are set to report 2009 revenue rising around 2 percent, primarily because of the long-awaited firming of memory chip prices.

"Memory vendors had slashed capital spending in the previous years, and supply constraints effectively elevated pricing," Gartner said. "NAND flash moved into an undersupply condition at the start of 2009; DRAM followed late in the second quarter of 2009, sending prices soaring."

Among top vendors, STMicroelectronics, Infineon and Renesas Technology will see the steepest revenue declines for 2009, Gartner said.