Global sales of semiconductors dropped by 33 percent in 2001, the sharpest decline in the history of the industry and one that sets the stage for a further shakeout among major vendors next year, according to a study released by Dataquest, a unit of Gartner. Based on preliminary statistics, all of the 10 largest chip vendors had seen double-digit percentage dec-lines in revenue in the past year as total sales fell to $152 billion in 2001 from $227 billion in 2000.

“As is evident in the sizeable declines by most of the top vendors, the industry has undergone tremendous destabilisation,” said Mary Olsson, chief semiconductor analyst for Gartner Dataquest in a statement. “We expect further consolidation for the industry during 2002.”

Intel had an estimated $23.5 billion in sales in 2001, making it the No 1 vendor again with a market share that increased amid the downturn to 15.5 percent and was larger than its three largest rivals combined, the study showed. Intel’s sales were down an estimated 22 percent in the year, a better performance than any of the largest chip vendors except STMicroelectronics, Europe’s largest chip maker.

STM took market share as its sales fell just 19 percent to $6.4 billion, a strong enough showing to make it the No 3 chip maker globally in 2001 after having ranked as just the sixth largest a year earlier, the study said.

Toshiba, which announced a deal to sell its memory chip business to Micron Technology, was the No 2 chip maker in 2001 with $7.1 billion in sales, the study said. The other top-ranked vendors by revenue, according to Dataquest: Samsung Electr-onics, the market leader in DRAM chips, which was No 4 overall with $6.3 billion in sales; Texas Instruments, No 5 with $6 billion in sales; NEC, No 6 with $5.4 billion; and Motorola, with $5 billion in sales.