1H11/1H10 top 20 semiconductor sales increase by 8 percent!

SCOTTSDALE, USA: A review of the 1H11 top semiconductor suppliers will be included in IC Insights' August Update, which is part of the new "Half-Year" subscription to The McClean Report. As shown in Fig. 1, Intel remained firmly in control of the number one spot in the ranking. In fact, Intel extended its lead over second-ranked Samsung by registering a 43 percent higher sales level than Samsung in 1H11 as compared to a 24 percent margin for all of 2010.

Although Nvidia's 1H11/1H10 sales increased by only 1 percent, it replaced Panasonic in the top 20 ranking. As shown in Fig. 1, there are two pure-play foundries in the top 20 ranking. Excluding these two foundry companies, Marvell and ON Semiconductor would have been included in the ranking.

In total, the top 20 semiconductor suppliers showed an 8 percent increase in 1H11 sales as compared to 1H10. This growth rate is four points greater than the worldwide 1H11/1H10 semiconductor market growth rate of 4 percent. Unlike last year, the memory companies did not secure the top growth rate positions in the ranking this year. In fact, as shown below, the top five 1H11/1H10 semiconductor sales growth rate increases were logged by non-memory suppliers.

Infineon; 30 percent growth from continuing operations (23% using 1H10 exchange rates).
Qualcomm; 29 percent jump due to surging smartphone IC sales.
Intel; 23 percent increase spurred in part by its acquisition of Infineon's wireless business.
TSMC; 20 percent growth (10 percent using 1H10 exchange rates).
Broadcom; 18 percent increase from strong wireless IC sales.

Of the big five memory suppliers in the top 20 ranking (i.e., Samsung, Toshiba, Hynix, Micron, and Elpida), only Samsung and Toshiba registered 1H11/1H10 growth. As shown in Fig. 1, even with a stronger yen, DRAM-dependent Elpida registered the worst 1H11/1H10 performance with a sharp 37 percent drop in revenue. In total, 10 of the top 20 suppliers outperformed the total worldwide semiconductor industry 1H11/1H10 growth rate of 4 percent.Source: IC Insights, USA.

In 1H11, the Japanese yen appreciated 12 percent, the Taiwan dollar 10 percent, the euro 6 percent, and the Korean won 5 percent versus the value of the US dollar in 1H10. As shown in Fig. 2, 10 of the top 20 semiconductor suppliers received a "boost" in sales value in 1H11 when revenue figures expressed in their local currencies were converted into US dollars.

In fact, these 10 semiconductor suppliers, in total, would have registered a 4 percent decline in 1H11/1H10 sales instead of a 4 percent increase if their revenue figures were expressed in their local currencies. Moreover, the top 20 companies' total 1H11/1H10 sales growth rate of 8 percent would have been cut in half to 4 percent if 1H10 exchange rates were used instead of the current exchange rate figures. It should be noted that both ST and NXP originally report all of their financial results in US dollars.

In total, IC Insights expects modest growth in the worldwide semiconductor market in the second half of 2011. Although the semiconductor market in the second half of the year typically registers a seasonal increase of 10 percent as compared to the first half, IC Insights expects the 2H11/1H11 semiconductor market to grow only 6 percent, yielding a full-year 2011 semiconductor industry growth rate of 5 percent.Source: IC Insights, USA.