Beijing, December 2. “Reference News” published “Nihon Keizai Shimbun” on the 2nd, “The scale of the world’s semiconductor market has shrunk for the first time in four years.” The abstract of the article is as follows:

The global semiconductor market shrinks for the first time in four years. An industry group composed of major companies recently announced that semiconductor revenue in 2023 will decrease by 4% from 2022 to $556.5 billion. The reason is that, in addition to reduced demand for smartphones, IT giants whose performance has deteriorated have begun to take measures to control investment in data centers. Semiconductors are leading indicators of the world economy. If the development of the semiconductor industry continues to slow down, it is likely to have an impact on the economy.

Industry group the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics Association said this was the first time since 2019 that the size of the semiconductor market was smaller than the previous year. The number of memory semiconductors needed to store data will be drastically reduced. Investment in memory-hungry data centers has stalled as shipments of smartphones and personal computers slump.

While automobiles and industrial equipment demand huge amounts of semiconductors and remain in short supply, semiconductors, the brains of digital devices, have turned to oversupply. Semiconductor companies have been ramping up production, but demand for smartphones and servers that use the semiconductors has fallen sharply due to a decline in private consumption.

The decline in the semiconductor market in 2023 is likely to be more severe than the negative growth in 2019.