IC unit shipments are forecast to surge 21% in 2021, following an 8% increase in 2020 and a 6% drop in 2019, according to IC Insights.

IC unit shipments for 2021 will reach 391.2 billion, more than 11 times the 34.1 billion units shipped over 30 years ago in 1990, IC Insights indicated.

The 2020-2025 IC unit volume CAGR is also forecast to be 11%, 5pp more than the unit CAGR from 2015-2020, IC Insights said.

Illustrating how rare a drop in IC units shipments is, 2019 was only the fifth time in the history of the IC industry that IC unit volumes declined (the previous four years were 1985, 2001, 2009, and 2012) and there have never been two consecutive years of declining IC unit shipments, IC Insights noted.

In 2008, IC Insights continued, underlying demand for ICs plummeted as the global economic recession hit with full force in the second half of the year. The CAGR trend line for IC unit volume from mid-2008 through 2015 was reduced to 6% from the historical CAGR of 9%.

Even with a 6% decline in IC unit shipments in 2019, the expected 2016-2021 quarterly IC unit volume shipment trend line is forecast to increase 3pp to 9%, spurred by the expected huge 21% jump in IC unit shipments in 2021, according to IC Insights.

By DIGITIMES