Electronic Equipment Growth Slows

After three years of strong growth, the global electronic equipment market will slow down a bit in 2007, according to an iSuppli forecast. PCs, mobile handsets, MP3 players and digital TVs have led the growth, in which worldwide revenues most recently grew 11 percent in 2006. These markets will continue to expand in 2007, but iSuppli predicts total electronics equipment growth will drop to 6 percent in 2007 as wireless, consumer and industrial markets cool. Mobile handset growth will remain strong in 2007, but revenue growth will be small since ASPs continue to decline. Demand for handsets has driven semiconductor revenues for wireless communications, but will stall as handset unit growth slows. Demand for new consumer-electronics products over the past four years has slowed also. Revenue growth dropped nearly a third in 2006, and is expected to decline by more than a third in 2007 as the market slows and ASPs continue to plummet, according to iSuppli. Wired communications and automotive are expected to grow but at weaker rates than seen in recent years, according to the report. Industrial market growth has also flattened, especially in the semiconductor manufacturing equipment sector. Despite these slowdowns, iSuppli predicts the total electronics market will post 12 percent growth in the second half of 2007 to bring the annual electronics equipment growth to 6 percent.