The semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) released its figures for the first quarter of this year, showing sales rose to $59.1bn in the quarter.

The sales were driven by chips used in mobile phones but sales of X86 CPUs rose. Handelsbanken Capital Markets, commenting on the figures, said it had expected a decline but PC chip sales "rose very strongly" in February.

A Handelsbanken representative said: "We are a bit naive. We thought Intel stuffed the channels in February, but it stuffed them even more in March, and then guided their second quarter sales down."
The SIA said sales in Europe fell by four per cent in March compared to the same period last year, representing $3.24bn in sales. Sales in the Americas rose by 15 per cent to $3.73bn.

Handelsbanken predicted chip sales overall rising by six per cent. NAND memory cell sales weakened.

For full story click here