Corona crushes previous expectations of IC market growth this year

Growth of the semiconductor market is no longer on the table this year, two major market researchers say. Both Gartner (12.5 percent) and IC Insights (8 percent) projected reasonable growth at the start of the year, but both have adjusted their projections downwards due to the impact of the coronavirus.

Gartner now expects a decline of 0.9 percent. “The wide spread of COVID-19 across the world and the resulting strong actions by governments to contain the spread will have a far more severe impact on demand than initially predicted,” said Richard Gordon, research practice vice president at Gartner. “This year’s forecast could have been worse, but growth in memory could prevent a steep decline.”

IC Insights is a little more pessimistic and projects a 4 percent contraction. Its analysts had already lowered their start-of-year outlook in their March update, knocking off 5 percentage points from the original 8 percent forecast.