Sales of semiconductors worldwide soared 44% on the year-ago figure to $146,800m in the back of high demand in the personal computer and cellular phone markets and continued stable semiconductor prices, IDC Japan Ltd reported yesterday. Multimedia demands lots of memory and supplies were tight all year. The International Data Corp unit said that the growth rate was the highest in the past three years and that, as expected, Intel Corp maintained its position at the top of the tree with 9.8% of the global market in 1995. NEC Corp and Toshiba Corp retained second and third place respectively – NEC’s chip sales totaled $11,590m in 1995, Toshiba’s were $11,550m. Hitachi Ltd climbed one place to fourth – on the back of increased supplies of dynamic memory chips actually fabricated for it by LG Semiconductor Ltd: the South Korean contribution pushed its sales of chips to $8,910m. Motorola Inc was in fifth place with $8,850m sales.
