The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) confirmed Monday the very good health of the semiconductor market. In 2021, the industry generated $556 billion in revenue, an amount never before achieved. For 2022, it estimates that sales will increase once again, to reach 605 billion dollars.
Semiconductors increasingly essential
For the first time, companies have delivered more than a trillion semiconductors, 1.15 trillion more precisely. Sales increased by 26.2% compared to 2020. With growth of 8.8% expected for 2022, the SIA seems to be counting on the end of the shortage of computer components. It plays on the selling price, but not on the demand for units to be delivered. ” The demand for semiconductor production is expected to increase significantly in the coming years as chips are increasingly integrated into today’s and tomorrow’s technologies. “, analyzes John Neuffer, president of the SIA in a communicated.
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Logically, the Americas (North and South) recorded the strongest sales growth (+27.4%), followed by Europe (+27.3%), the Asia-Pacific region (25.9% ), and Japan, a market on its own (+19.8%). It should be noted that China remains the largest importer of semiconductors: sales represented 192.5 billion in turnover for the industry, or 34% of the total for 2021.
The United States and Europe in battle order
In the eyes of governments, semiconductors have become as strategic as they are essential. The difficulty of supply caused by the pandemic, which continues, has put them back at the center of concerns.
Europe has recently unveiled a plan to 43 billion euros to develop regional production of chips. Currently at 10% of global production, the European Chips Act aims to double that rate by 2030.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, promises a law to stimulate European production of semiconductors. Photography: AEDH.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the government of Joe Biden has unveiled a CHIPS Act. It must inject 52 billion dollars directly into the production of semiconductors. This sum completes the America Competes Act of 352 billion dollars which must support the entire American technology industry. Among the remaining 300 billion, a part is also allocated to financing research and development in the sector.
In this financial elbow-to-elbow between Europe and Uncle Sam, the EU forgets that it has only a few players in the semiconductor industry, when the giants are Taiwanese, Chinese, South Korean, or American.