United States

What will the New Year bring? Purchasing Managers Indices (PMIs) are a good leading indicator of present and near-term manufacturing activity by country.

The global electronics industry normally experiences a seasonal upturn from mid-summer through the December holidays. However, this autumn’s upturn is less robust.

After a downturn in 2019, investments in new fab projects starting construction is expect to jump US$12 billion to nearly US$50 billion in 2020, with China accounting for the bulk of the investments, according to the latest update of the World Fab Forecast from SEMI.

The recent anti-globalization political rhetoric raises a number of challenges for the semiconductor supply chain. Throughout the ongoing US-China trade war, and now the dispute between South Korea and Japan, most attention has focused on the consequences for players at the top of the supply chain.

Electronic equipment growth definitely slowed in late 2018. Based on the consolidated revenues of 213 large, global OEMs electronic equipment sales grew only 2.1 percent in 4Q’18 vs. 4Q’17, down from 4.9 percent in the third quarter and 10 percent in the second quarter.

Custer Consulting Group has its first estimate of global electronic equipment growth in 4Q’18 vs. 4Q’17.

Now that most companies in our sector analyses have reported their calendar third quarter 2018 financial results, we have final or 3Q’18/2Q’17 growth estimates for the world electronic supply chain. We estimate electronic equipment grew 6.7% on a U.S. dollar-denominated basis.