Global chip sales continued to be affected by the Asian economic troubles and pricing pressures, falling 17% year-over-year in July, according to the latest report from the Semiconductor Industry Association. Overall figures plunged from $11.65bn in July 1997 to $9.67bn and fell 1.9% from June’s $9.66bn. The slump hit all geographies, with Japan leading the charge by falling 30.2% to $2.05bn. Sales in the Americas fell 17% to $3.2bn, while Asia-Pacific dropped 13.7% to $2.19bn. European sales slipped 3.9% to $2.22bn. The SIA said that depreciation of the yen and an oversupply of memory chips, leading to soft prices, were largely responsible for the downturn. It points to growing PC sales as a positive sign, though, and figures that pricing will modify as demand balances with capacity. In the meantime, many chipmakers are feeling the pinch, with Intel and AMD posting tough second- quarter numbers and Japanese giants Hitachi, Matsushita and Mitsubishi all scaling back operations in the past couple of weeks. Also Thursday, National Semiconductor reported a third- quarter loss of nearly $105m.
