Global chip sales rose 3.8 percent in 1Q, SIA says

The industry group said sales rose to $63.4 billion during the period, compared with $61.1 billion in the first quarter of 2007.

By month, SIA said that March chip sales rose to $21.1 billion from $20.5 billion in February.

SIA said consumer purchases of electronics in non-U.S. markets more than offset weakness in the U.S. economy during the quarter.

U.S. chip sales climbed less than global sales, rising 2.3 percent year-over-year.

Excluding memory products, total global chip sales rose 11 percent year-over-year in the first quarter.

"Weakness in memory revenue as a result of rapid price erosion masks the overall strength of semiconductor sales," SIA President George Scalise said in a statement.

SIA said that first-quarter sales of DRAM chips or dynamic random access memory, which is the most common type of memory chip used in personal computers fell 37.4 percent even as unit shipments rose 30.6 percent. Average selling prices for DRAM chips fell 52 percent when not considering product mix.

Meanwhile, sales of NAND flash memory which is widely used in consumer electronics rose 45.9 percent as shipments rose 46 percent year over year. Citing information from Micron Technology Inc., SIA said average selling prices for 8 gigabyte NAND chips fell 70 percent from March 2007.

Global first-quarter chip sales declined 5.1 percent when compared with fourth-quarter sales of $66.8 billion. SIA said the change represented a normal seasonal decline after what is traditionally a strong quarter.