European sales of semiconductors in December 2009 were up 15.4% compared to December 2008, according to WSTS. December was the only month in 2009 to show an increase in sales compared to the same month in 2008.
Compared to November, Europe saw positive growth for general purpose analogue ICs which were up 4.5% in December on November, also for standard logic which was up 1% on November, and also for DRAM which grew 7.7% in December compared to November.
Overall, European sales in December of $2.94bn were 3.5% below those in November. For 2009 as a whole, semiconductor sales of $29.86bn represented a decrease of by 21.9% compared to 2008.
Measured in Euro, semiconductor sales in December 2009 were €1.99bn - down 2.8% on November and up 2.4% versus November 2008.
For the total year 2009, measured in Euro, semiconductor sales showed a decline of 17.9% versus the year 2008. In Euros, the market in total year 2009 reached a value of € 21.33bn.
On a worldwide basis, semiconductor sales in December 2009 were $22.42bn, down 1.2% versus the previous month.
This represents an increase of 28.9% versus December 2008 and on a total year basis it represents a decrease of 9.0%. The World market 2009 was worth $226.31bn.