Gartner slashes semiconducter market view by $25 bln

HELSINKI, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Research firm Gartner said on Tuesday it has slashed more than $25 billion from its forecast for the electronic semiconductor market next year because of the economic crisis.

Gartner expects worldwide semiconductor revenue in 2009 to total approximately $282 billion, up 1 percent from this year. It had earlier forecast the market to grow 7.8 percent to $307.7 billion.

Gartner estimates worldwide semiconductor revenue in 2008 to total $279.4 billion, a 2 percent increase from 2007.

"Semiconductor growth was surprisingly strong until recently, given the very weak economic environment, but this will start to change in the fourth quarter of 2008," Bryan Lewis, research vice president at Gartner said in a statement.

"Mounting evidence suggests that the semiconductor industry will see negative growth starting in the fourth quarter of 2008, and that this will continue throughout most of 2009," he said. (Reporting by Tarmo Virki; Editing by Greg Mahlich)