Eight out of the Top Ten semiconductor suppliers not only saw
revenues decline last year, they also under-performed the market,
according to iSuppli.
"Many of these suppliers are focused on semiconductor segments
that performed poorly during the year, including memory, Digital
Signal Processors (DSPs), analog Integrated Circuits (ICs) and
standard logic. This caused 80 percent of the Top-10 and 60 percent
of the Top-25 semiconductor suppliers to experience declining
revenues compared to 2007," said Dale Ford, senior vice president
at iSuppli.
Among the Top 25 suppliers, the companies increasing revenues
were No 5 ranked STMicroelectronics, No 8 Qualcomm, No. 11 NEC,
No14 Broadcom, No.15 Panasonic, No.18 Sharp, No.20 Rohm, No. 22
Marvell, No.23 MediaTek. and No 24 Fujitsu.
However, not all these achieved their growth through organic
sales increases. "The growth achieved by STMicroelectronics,
Broadcom, Rohm and MediaTek in 2008 was enabled or enhanced by
major acquisitions during the year, rather than by increasing sales
in their existing product lines," said Ford.
"The remaining six-Qualcomm, NEC, Panasonic, Sharp, Marvell and
Fujitsu-expanded their revenues by between 1.5 per cent and 15.3
per cent in 2008 based only on organic growth."
For NEC, Panasonic, Sharp and Fujitsu Microelectronics, most of
the growth came from the declining dollar.
Six of the Top Ten underperformed the overall semiconductor
industry in 2008: No 2 Samsung, No. 3 Toshiba, No.4 TI, No.6
Renesas, No.7 Sony, and No.9 Hynix., all of which had revenue
declines greater than the 5.2 per cent for the overall
semiconductor market.
Hynix posted the largest revenue decline among the Top-10 and
Top-25, at 33.4 per cent.
The next biggest decline was posted by NXP Semiconductors, at
29.4 per cent, due to the spin off of its wireless chip business.
The next biggest decliners were Samsung, Sony and Renesas.
In Q408, industry revenues declined 21.5 per cent, said iSuppli,
with the deepest falls in
DSPs, NOR flash, and application-specific analog ICs, where
revenues fell by between 25 to 28 per cent. Other big decliners
were: DRAM, NAND Flash, Display Drivers and Standard Logic ICs.
Star performers were Qualcomm, which moved into the Top Ten
rankings, rising to eighth place in 2008, up from 13th in 2007
Broadcom which jumped to No 14, up from No.19 Rohm at No.20 and
MediaTek at No.23.
Optical components, standard linear ICs, programmable logic
devices, microprocessors and sensors/actuators were the only major
semiconductor market segments to achieve growth, with their
revenues increasing between 1 and 6 per cent. Wired communications
and industrial electronics were the only end-market segments to see
increased revenues for 2008 with growth between 2 and 3 per cent
for the full year.
Fabless suppliers, with growth of 1.4 per cent in 2008,
out-performed the overall semiconductor market and led the growth
among the Top 25 semiconductor suppliers in 2008.
Qualcomm, Broadcom, Marvell and MediaTek each grew their
revenues between 10.2 per cent and 23.9 per cent in 2008. Out of
the five fabless companies in the Top25 rankings, only nVidia saw
its revenues decline in 2008.
Top 25 Semiconductor Suppliers 2008
- Intel 34
- Samsung 17
- Toshiba 11
- TI 11
- ST 10
- Renesas 7
- Sony 7
- Qualcomm 6
- Hynix 6
- Infineon 6
- NEC 6
- AMD 5.4
- Freescale 5
- Broadcom 4.6
- Panasonic 4.5
- Micron 4.4
- NXP 4
- Sharp 3.7
- Elpida 3.6
- Rohm 3.3
- nVidia 3.2
- Marvell Technology Group 3
- MediaTek 2.9
- Fujitsu Microelectronics 2.7
- Analog Devices 2.5
See also: Mannerisms, the blog of David
Manners. Updated twice daily, it's the distinctive, entertaining,
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