Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International, a trade association based in San Jose, Calif., said equipment suppliers worldwide had reported shipments worth $5.6 billion, a 56percentt drop from the $13 billion in the 2000 period and a 20percentt drop from the second quarter of this year.
Note, the company reported shipments rather than sales to consumers.
That's a 223.2 percent increase from the same time last year, when the IDC reported shipments of 5.6 million units.
Washington called a reported shipment of Russian arms to Syria "reprehensible" although not illegal.
ISG, which is based in Richfield, Ohio, reported record shipments for the most recent quarter.
There were certainly encouraging signs in the report, with shipments to small and medium businesses up 18% and consumer shipments 29% better than a year ago.
According to their report, iPhone shipments decreased by 6percentt in the second quarter, while Android shipments increased 16percentt.
Three more current or former major league baseball players have been connected in a published report to shipments of performance-enhancing drugs.
"We are pleased to report record shipments of more than 10 million BlackBerry smartphones during the third quarter with higher-than-expected revenue, earnings and subscriber growth," the co-chief executive, Jim Balsillie, said in a statement.
According to the Energy Department's own report, the shipments would move through 43 states, 109 cities with populations of more than 100,000 each and thousands of smaller places like Evanston, a town of some 11,500.
