Analysts bump up their forecasts with “blowout” Q1
Q1 has been good for the semiconductor industry. Very good, especially w.r.t the dismal 2009.
With Q1 results ranging from knock out to good and promising, industry analysts (iSuppli, Future Horizons etc.) are also revising up their forecasts. The average forecast points north of 30. iSuppli noted that even though semicon revenues typically declines in the first quarter (compared to forth quarter of previous year), Q1’ 2010 saw chip sales up 1..1% compared with Q4 ’09. Malcolm Penn of Future Horizons has been quite bullish. While cautioning about the potential for a second dip in the general economy, he maintained that only a monumental disaster of a scale similar to the banking crisis of 2008 could now derail the chip market recovery.
However, companies are still treading warily and hesitant to ramp up capacities – there is not much sign of the supply chain easing up.