The global market for semiconductors was $20.53 billion in May 2008, according to data from World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS), up 9.2 percent on May 2007.
This is considerably more than the three-month moving average for May published by the U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association on June 30.
The actual data in May compares to an actual market size of $19.38 billion in April 2008, up 5.5 percent on April 2007, and evidence of a gathering pace of market growth in 2008, despite concerns over the general economy.
On a geographic basis, the AsiaPacific region showed strongest growth reaching $10.35 billion in May, up 17.5 percent from where it had been a year before. Japan's market was $3.85 billion, up 3.1 percent; Europe's market stood at $3.16 billion, up 4.3 percent while the America's region market was also $3.16 billion, a contraction of 1.7 percent from the value in May 2007.
The U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association publishes WSTS numbers as a three-month average. It argues that this smoothes out the data which would otherwise display the effect of in-quarter reporting artifacts that tend to treat March, June, September and December as five-week months.