SEOUL: Global demand for memory chips will rebound next year, helped by the spread of 5G services, market research reports showed Saturday, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported.
Chipmakers, such as Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix Inc., have suffered from declines in sales revenue this year due to excessive inventories and lower demand from corporate customers.
Semiconductor sales fell 15 to 132 trillion won ($111 billion) in the July-September quarter, down 15 per cent from a year earlier, according to data from software vendor IHS Markit.
IHS Markit expected the world’s semiconductor sales to remain weak and post a 12-per cent on-year sales drop for the whole of 2019.
World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) forecast a 13-per cent decline in overall semiconductor sales this year from a year ago.
But those market research firms projected chip sales to improve in 2020 to meet demand from the providers of the fifth-generation mobile communications services that enables global connectivity.
WSTS expected the world’s chip demand to grow 5.9 per cent next year compared to this year and DRAMeXchange said DRAM prices look set to rebound next year on expanded 5G services.
The 5G services are widely expected to be utilised further in connected cars, Internet of Things and data centres.
As companies are increasingly interested in 5G services, artificial intelligence, deep learning and virtual reality businesses, it will help drive up the demand for NAND flash memory and dynamic random access memory chips, IC Insights said. – Bernama
