Memory and foundry companies shine in 1H10 semiconductor ranking

SCOTTSDALE, USA: IC Insights' recently updated Strategic Reviews Online database shows that most large memory and foundry companies performed extremely well in 1H10. As shown in Fig. 1, most of these companies registered strong doubledigit growth rates in 2Q10/1Q10 to move up in the ranking.

Of the big five memory suppliers in the top 20 ranking (ie, Samsung, Toshiba, Hynix, Micron, and Elpida), all but Samsung gained at least one position (with Elpida jumping five spots to number 10).

Fig. 1Source: IC Insights, USA.

Although Samsung did not move up in the ranking, it did gain ground on the number one supplier—Intel. In 2009, Intel's semiconductor sales were 52 percent larger than Samsung's. However, in 2Q10, Intel's sales margin over Samsung was reduced by more than half, to only 21 percent!

It is no secret that the DRAM and NAND flash memory markets have been extremely strong over the past few quarters. This is very evident when looking at the 2Q10/1Q10 sales increases of Hynix (14 percent), Micron (14 percent), and Elpida (18 percent). Moreover, each of these companies 1H10 sales were only about $1 billion or less than their full-year 2009 sales results!

The two largest semiconductor foundries, TSMC and UMC, also did very well in the first half of 2010. As shown in Fig. 1, TSMC moved up one spot in the ranking to the 5th position, while UMC jumped six spots into 18th place!

If foundries were excluded from the top 20 ranking, Panasonic (1H10 sales of $1,830 million) and Nvidia (1H10 sales of $1,804 million) would claim the 19th and 20th positions, respectively.

Although Renesas and NEC did not officially merge until April 1, 2010, for ease of comparison, IC Insights combined the two companies' semiconductor sales for all of 2009 and 1Q10. As shown, the "new" Renesas went from being ranked 4th in 2009 to 6th in 1H10.

Collectively, the top 20 semiconductor companies had sales of about $102 billion in 1H10. If 2H10 sales are only flat with 1H10 (they will probably be higher), the total sales of the top 20 companies would be $204 billion. Even at $204 billion, the full-year 2010 top 20 sales growth rate would be 29 percent.

Source: IC Insights, USA.