Recovery Expected In The Second Half Of 2009 After A Sharp Recession

Future Horizons is predicting a recovery in the second half of 2009 in the Annual Semiconductor Report that was released today. “There have so far been ten chip-market recessions and all but two have resulted in negative industry growth,” said Malcolm Penn, Chairman, founder and CEO of Future Horizons. “2009 will mark the industry’s eleventh recession; a further period on negative growth is inevitable at an estimated minus 28 percent, similar in magnitude to 2001.”

“This semiconductor recession is unlike previous recessions and is directly attributable to the worldwide financial problems; it is not a structural problem of the industry itself,” he continued. “This factor will help to mitigate the global recession’s impact on the industry. On the other hand all markets and all regions were impacted quickly and at the same time. This leads us to predict a minus 28 percent negative growth in dollars for the global semiconductor market over 2008.”

Future Horizons believes the industry is in structurally good shape to enter a recession. This should make the 2009 downturn shorter than it might otherwise have been, depending on when confidence in the global economy stops falling and that is expected to be during 2010.

Today businesses prefer the ‘stop everything/do nothing’ approach resulting in the dramatic fall in Q4 semiconductor demand, but this cannot continue forever. Future Horizons expects a gradual return to ‘business as usual’ - whatever the new ‘usual’ turns out to be - in Q2 2009 once a degree of confidence returns to the markets. It is impossible to predict when the recovery will start, but it eventually will and, given the extent and abruptness of the Q4-08 decline, an overshoot is inevitable making the recovery process faster coming, possibly as early as the second half of this year.

Posted By: Alan Brown

Date: 28-Apr-2009

Category: Reports