Shakeup in 3Q07 top ten semiconductor supplier ranking
Toshiba have moved past TI and ST to become the third largest semiconductor supplier in the world while AMD moved into the top ten ranking for the first time in its history. Highlights of some of the changes that took place in 3Q07 are:Toshiba rode the coattails of a 46% 3Q07/2Q07 NAND flash memory market surge to post a 40% 3Q07/2Q07 semiconductor sales increase. This increase helped propel Toshiba to a third place ranking, its highest since being ranked as the second largest semiconductor supplier in 2000.
AMD continues to display a nice recovery this year with its 3Q07 sales increasing 18% over 2Q07, which follows a 12% sequential increase in 2Q07/1Q07. As part of its continuing MPU marketshare battle with Intel, AMD is expected to announce a major manufacturing/foundry deal in the second half of 2007. The largest pure-play foundry in the world, TSMC, jumped one spot in 3Q07 as compared to the full-year 2006 ranking as the company recorded a strong 3Q07/2Q07 sales increase of 21%. It should be noted that after operating at only 83% capacity utilisation in 1Q07, TSMC surpassed its company-defined 100% capacity utilisation level in 3Q07.
If pure-play foundry TSMC were excluded from the ranking, NXP would move into the tenth position.In spite of 3Q07 DRAM pricing weakness, Hynix took advantage of its strong NAND flash marketshare to move from seventh to sixth place in the ranking.Freescale continues to feel the pain of its biggest customer, Motorola, as the company went from being ranked as the ninth largest semiconductor supplier in the world in 2006 to 16th in 3Q07.
Unfortunately for Freescale, Motorola has gone from holding a 22% share of cellular phone unit shipments in 3Q06 (53.7 million) to securing only a 13% share in 3Q07 (37.2 million). TI, ST, and Renesas were the only top ten companies to register less than double-digit 3Q07/2Q07 sequential sales growth rates. Each of these companies is a top-ten supplier to the currently slow-growing analog IC market.
The top ten listing consists of three U.S., three Japanese, two Korean, one European, and one Taiwanese company. Through the end of 2007, IC Insights expects to see pricing stability return to the DRAM memory market, surging IC demand for PCs and high-end cellular phones, and a continuation of the seasonal rebound in overall semiconductor demand that began in August. Together, these three factors are forecast to close out 2007 on a positive note for the major semiconductor suppliers.
