World-wide semiconductor sales in December declined by 0.9% to $10.99bn compared with the November and were 16.6% lower than the same month the previous year, the US Semiconductor Industry Association announced. The figures are the first released under the trade lobby’s new reporting scheme. In North America, chip sales rose 0.2% from November to $3.53bn, the Japanese market fell 2.2% to $2.79bn and the European market fell 2.5% to $2.33bn while the Asia-Pacific market rose 0.9% to $2.34bn. For all of 1996, total world semiconductor sales fell 8.6% to $144.4bn, rather better than the 10.5% fall it had estimated.
