Taiwan's IC design houses expect customers to step up their orders in December 2010 in preparation for Lunar New Year holiday demand. Monthly sales will likely bottom out in November, and start to bounce back in December, according to sources at the companies.

Demand for Thanksgiving and the year-end holidays has not picked up substantially, the sources indicated. Major players including MediaTek, Novatek Microelectronics, Richtek Technology and Realtek Semiconductor are likely to report on-month revenue drops of up to 5% for November, the sources said.

Most Taiwan-based IC design houses posted revenue declines of 10-40% sequentially in October, affected by slow market demand plus reduced working days in China during the national holidays, the sources said. Without taking the latter into account, the anticipated drops in November will be insignificant, the sources added.

In addition, the sources claimed that China-based customers have recently begun negotiating orders for December. An influx of short lead-time orders could be released at any time, the sources said.

MediaTek's consolidated revenues slid 15.2% on month to NT$7.375 billion (US$244 million) in October, as orders shrank about 25% from September, the sources indicated. The company's sales may also be dragged lower by seasonal factors in November, but are expected to recover in December, the sources added.