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In figure 1 the blue line represents 2000, the peak semiconductor revenue year. The green line is 2001 revenue, note how 2001 starts in-line with 2000 and then in April drops down (the beginning of the downturn). The orange line for 2002 starts in-line with 2001 and then in July begins to show some improvement (the beginning of the recovery). The purple line for 2003 shows recovery over 2002 every month with the fourth quarter showing significant progress towards recovering back to 2000 levels. Finally, the grey squares are 2004 revenue, with January through July showing progressively moderating growth over the year 2000 peak, August dipping under the year 2000 level and September through November now showing some recovery with increasing momentum.
In 2003 the worldwide semiconductor market totaled $166.4 billion dollars made up of $140 billion dollars in ICs and $26.4 billion dollars in discretes. For 2004 we expect the total semiconductor market to end at approximately 29% growth with ICs showing similar growth.
The recent inventory correction in the semiconductor industry and falling utilization rates are cause for concern. Historically falling utilization is a leading indicator of a downturn. Having said that, our modeling for 2005 suggests that while Q1 will be weak with utilization in the mid eighties, Q2 will recover to the low nineties and the market will strengthen the rest of the year. We currently expect the total IC revenue growth for 2005 to be 18%.
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