ISuppli Raises 2006 Chip Estimate
After years of coming close to breaking into the top-10 global semiconductor rankings, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Hynix Semiconductor finally hit the big time in 2006, according to a preliminary ranking from iSuppli Corp. In the telecoms world, Qualcomm maintained its ranking while Broadcom managed to jump a couple of places.
Preliminary Ranking of the World's Top-25 Semiconductor Suppliers in 2006 (Ranking by Revenue in Millions of U.S. Dollars)
2005 Rank | 2006 Rank |
Company Name | 2005 Revenue | 2006 Revenue | Percent Change | Percent of Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Intel | 35,466 | 31,359 | -11.6% | 12.1% |
2 | 2 | Samsung Electronics | 17,210 | 19,207 | 11.6% | 7.4% |
3 | 3 | Texas Instruments | 10,745 | 12,832 | 19.4% | 5.0% |
4 | 4 | Toshiba | 9,077 | 10,166 | 12.0% | 3.9% |
5 | 5 | STMicroelectronics | 8,881 | 9,931 | 11.8% | 3.8% |
7 | 6 | Renesas Technology | 8,266 | 8,221 | -0.5% | 3.2% |
15 | 7 | AMD* | 3,917 | 7,471 | 90.7% | 2.9% |
11 | 8 | Hynix | 5,560 | 7,365 | 32.5% | 2.8% |
9 | 9 | NXP | 5,646 | 6,221 | 10.2% | 2.4% |
10 | 10 | Freescale Semiconductor | 5,598 | 6,059 | 8.2% | 2.3% |
8 | 11 | NEC Electronics | 5,710 | 5,696 | -0.2% | 2.2% |
NA | 12 | Qimonda** | 0 | 5,549 | NA | 2.1% |
12 | 13 | Micron Technology | 4,775 | 5,290 | 10.8% | 2.0% |
6 | 14 | Infineon Technologies** | 8,297 | 5,195 | -37.4% | 2.0% |
13 | 15 | Sony | 4,574 | 4,875 | 6.6% | 1.9% |
16 | 16 | Qualcomm | 3,457 | 4,466 | 29.2% | 1.7% |
14 | 17 | Matsushita Electric | 4,131 | 4,124 | -0.2% | 1.6% |
20 | 18 | Broadcom | 2,671 | 3,657 | 36.9% | 1.4% |
17 | 19 | Sharp Electronics | 3,266 | 3,476 | 6.4% | 1.3% |
28 | 20 | Elpida Memory | 1,776 | 3,354 | 88.9% | 1.3% |
19 | 21 | IBM Microelectronics | 2,792 | 3,151 | 12.9% | 1.2% |
18 | 22 | Rohm | 2,909 | 2,964 | 1.9% | 1.1% |
24 | 23 | Spansion | 2,054 | 2,617 | 27.4% | 1.0% |
22 | 24 | Analog Devices | 2,428 | 2,599 | 7.0% | 1.0% |
23 | 25 | nVidia | 2,069 | 2,475 | 19.6% | 1.0% |
| Other Companies: | 75,985 | 80,212 | 5.6% | 31.0% | ||
| Total Revenue: | 237,260 | 258,532 | 9.0% | 100.0% | ||
**Qimonda was formed in 2006 from a spinout of the memory division of Infineon. Revenue for both companies is separated for the full year of 2006.
Source: iSuppli Corp. December 2006
The strong performance of the two companies comes amid renewed strength in worldwide semiconductor sales for the year. iSuppli's revised estimate for semiconductor sales in 2006 foresees revenue of $258.5 billion, up 9 percent from $237.3 billion in 2005. iSuppli previously forecasted 7.8 percent growth for the year.
<b>Hynix rides DRAM and NAND flash sales</b>
South-Korean pure-play memory chip maker Hynix in 2006 achieved semiconductor revenue of $7.4 billion, up $1.8 billion from $5.6 billion in 2005, driven by surging sales of its lines of DRAM and NAND-type flash memory. iSuppli projects Hynix's DRAM revenue will grow by $1.1 billion in 2006 and its NAND flash revenue will rise by $770 million.
In comparison, Samsung Electronics, the world's leading supplier of memory chips, is expected to see its memory revenue increase by a smaller amount in 2006, at a $1.77 billion rise. "Hynix's achievement of surpassing the much-larger Samsung in terms of dollar growth in memory chip revenue in 2006 represents a considerable accomplishment," Ford said.
<b>Big chip makers get bigger</b>
Seven of the top-10 semiconductor suppliers in 2006 will achieve revenue growth in excess of the overall industry projected growth of 9 percent. Texas Instruments stands out with projected revenue growth of 19.4 percent in 2006, the third highest rate of expansion among the top-10 suppliers after AMD and Hynix. The company continues to benefit from its dominant position in mobile-phone silicon.
Beyond AMD and Hynix, four other companies among the top-25 semiconductor suppliers will achieve growth greater than 25 percent in 2006: communications chip specialists Qualcomm and Broadcom, and memory suppliers Elpida and Spansion. This reflects broad strength for the wireless and memory chip markets in 2006.
Japanese pure-play DRAM supplier Elpida is expected to leap to No. 20 in the rankings in 2006, up from 28 in 2005. Elpida's revenue will increase by $1.6 billion for the year, representing nearly 89 percent growth.
<b>Memory leads chip sales growth</b>
iSuppli projects that the global semiconductor market will grow by 9 percent in 2006 based on iSuppli's quarterly semiconductor market share research of 110 leading semiconductor suppliers. Memory chips are driving the growth of the industry with projected annual growth of 21.5 percent for the year. DRAM is the key factor propelling memory IC revenue expansion in 2006 with forecasted growth of 32 percent.
In contrast, microcomponents represent the only major semiconductor category that will see a revenue decline in 2006, with a drop of 0.3 percent. Microprocessor revenues will decline by 6.6 percent for the year due to aggressive market-share battles that are driving down prices. However, sales revenue for digital signal processors will rise by 6.6 percent for the year."
Posted to the site on 5th December 2006
