According to findings from Semicast Research's recent analysis of the world industrial/medical semiconductor market, revenues are projected to grow by nine per cent in 2010 to $22.5 billion, and to grow by almost ten per cent in 2011 to $24.6 billion. As recovery takes hold following the downturn of 2009 and business confidence and credit availability slowly return over the medium term, Semicast expects revenues of semiconductors in the industrial/medical sector to reach $35.7 billion in 2015, a CAGR of almost ten per cent over the period 2009 to 2015.
The "industrial/medical sector" is, in practice, a mixture of sub-sectors within a sector, encompassing applications as diverse as factory automation, agricultural machinery and consumer medical. This spread across vastly different markets and suppliers tends to even out the peaks and troughs, such that the industrial/medical sector tends not to exhibit the "boom-and-bust" cycle so typical of the semiconductor industry as a whole. Colin Barnden, Principal Analyst at Semicast Research and study author, commented "While in good times this means opportunities are often overlooked, during more uncertain times the sector represents a safe bet for semiconductor suppliers looking for steady and dependable revenues". In the downturn of 2009, semiconductor revenues in the industrial/medical sector dipped by less than seven per cent from 2008, but still finished the year at a level in excess of the 2007 total. Compared with a decline of eleven per cent for the overall semiconductor market in 2009 (and automotive down 17%), the industrial/medical market has performed well over the course of the downturn when compared with other sectors. Renesas Electronics was the leading supplier of semiconductors to the industrial/medical sector in 2009, ahead of Infineon Technologies and STMicroelectronics; Analog Devices and Texas Instruments completed the top five.
