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TAP TIMES -23- SEPTEMBER 2022

June swoon: First-ever Second, June is normally one of the stron-
sequential sales drop gest months of the year for IC sales since

OEMs are buying chips to build into their
SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — The IC mar- new systems in time for back-to-school
ket recorded its first-ever June se- and end-of-year holiday sales.
quential sales decline this year, based
on data from the SIA, WEMA and Memory sales fell
WSTS dating back to 1976. The biggest contributor to June’s total IC
market decline was the sudden and dra-
Breaking a trend matic drop in memory IC sales.
Typically, high single-digit or double-digit
sales gains have been the pattern for June A dramatic revenue downturn is not read-
IC sales. Even in its previously weakest ily evident in the 2Q22 financial results
year (1985), June IC sales increased 1%. from Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron
Never, until this year, have June IC sales since June’s decline offset gains made in
declined. April and May.

This extraordinary result was startling for However, Micron is forecasting a -17%
at least two reasons: sales drop for its fiscal 4Q (ending in Au-
gust).
First, June is a quarter-ending five week
month and that alone has historically been Samsung and SK Hynix do not provide
enough to generate a sales uptick com- next-quarter sales guidance, but it is rea-
pared to the four-week month of May. sonable to presume that their 3Q outlooks
are somewhat
similar to what
Micron has fore-
cast.

Not typical
The second and
third quarters
of the calendar
year are typical-
ly the strongest
two quarters for
IC sales.

Since 1984, 2Q
sales results
have grown by
an average of
4.2% and 3Q
sales have in-
creased an av-
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