The global semiconductor industry posted sales of US$338.9 billion in 2016, the highest-ever annual sales, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

The semiconductor sales for 2016 represented a modest increase of 1.1% compared to the 2015 total, said SIA.

The global semiconductor industry posted sales of US$31 billion in December 2016, flat on month but 12.3% higher than year-ago levels. Sales for the fourth quarter of 2016 came to US$93 billion, rising 12.3% on year and 5.4% on quarter, SIA disclosed.

"Following a slow start to the year, the global semiconductor market picked up steam mid-year and never looked back reaching nearly US$340 billion in sales in 2016, the industry's highest-ever annual total," said John Neuffer, president and CEO of SIA. "Market growth was driven by macroeconomic factors, industry trends, and the ever-increasing amount of semiconductor technology in devices the world depends on for working, communicating, manufacturing, treating illness, and countless other applications. We expect modest growth to continue in 2017 and beyond."

Several semiconductor product segments stood out in 2016. Logic was the largest semiconductor category by sales with US$91.5 billion in 2016, or 27% of the total semiconductor market, SIA said. Memory (US$76.8 billion) and micro-ICs (US$60.6 billion), a category that includes microprocessors, rounded out the top three segments in terms of total sales.

Sensors and actuators was the fastest growing segment, increasing 22.7% in 2016, SIA said. Other product segments that posted increased sales in 2016 include NAND flash memory, which reached US$32 billion in sales for a 11% annual increase, digital signal processors (US$2.9 billion/12.5% increase), diodes (US$2.5 billion/8.7% increase), small signal transistors (US$1.9 billion/7.3% increase), and analog (US$47.8 billion/5.8% increase).

Regionally, annual sales increased 9.2% in China, leading all regional markets, and 3.8% in Japan, SIA said. All other regional markets, Asia Pacific/All Other (negative 1.7%), Europe (negative 4.5%), and the Americas (negative 4.7%), saw decreased sales compared to 2015.