For the first time in history, annual global semiconductor sales topped the $300 billion mark in 2013. The Semiconductor Industry Association released its figures for last year, which showed that those sales amounted to $305.6 billion. This represented year-over-year growth of nearly 5% from 2012's $291.6 billion.
The industry didn't only notch an annual record. The SIA said that December sales came in at $26.6 billion, the best showing of all time for that month. In the Americas alone, the December take advanced by 17% compared with the same month of 2012.
The SIA quoted its CEO Brian Toohey as saying that the increases were due to "consistent, steady growth across nearly all regions and product categories." He added that this trend was likely to continue into this year as well.
Several of the SIA's member companies have reported strong results recently. SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) beat analyst expectations in its latest set of figures, while Texas Instruments (TXN -0.66%) posted a relatively strong finish to 2013.
