"We are now at the end of the second year of an up cycle and there is despondency regarding the future, as the fourth quarter of 2000 was weak relative to the preceding quarter," stated Joe D'Elia, vice president and director of Gartner Dataquest's European semiconductor research, in announcing the report. "Historically, the industry has gone through inventory corrections during the positive portion of the industry cycle, and we see no reason to believe that this current weakening is anything else other than an inventory correction."
According to the report, NEC relinquished the No. 2 position in semiconductor revenue to Toshiba, which had an outstanding year with many of its efforts to diversify from memory finally coming to fruition in 2000 (see Table 1). Other movers in the top 10 included STMicroelectronics, which moved up from ninth to seventh, and Hyundai, which moved up from eleventh to eighth.
The Americas region was the No. 1 region in the world with revenue of $71.7 billion in 2000, an increase of 29% over 1999. The No. 2 region was Asia/Pacific, which had revenue totaling $56.9 billion. Japan had semiconductor revenue reach $50.4 billion, an increase of 33% over 1999 revenue. The semiconductor market in Europe surpassed $43.1 billion, up 29% from last year. "The fourth quarter slowdown was strongest in the Americas region, and it was a major factor in the lower-than-average growth experienced in the region," said Mr. D'Elia.
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