Chip demand set to bloom

The light at the end of the tunnel...

The growth rate in demand for semiconductors will blossom by over 21 percent by next year. After a disastrous year in 2001, forecasts from World Semiconductor Trade Statistics predict growth will start to pick up this year with modest gains of 2.3 per cent. By next year this figure looks set to leap to more than 20 per cent before retracting to 14.5 per cent in 2004 and settling at 3.2 per cent in 2005. Despite this tail-off, the organisation is still expecting the market to be worth more than the $204.4bn record set back in 2000.