See also: TSMC calls the upturn
The silicon foundry industry was the first segment of the semiconductor industry to call an upturn. First TSMC, 
then UMC, Chartered and SMIC announced that Q209 revenues would show big gains on Q1.
That came after three quarters of contraction. Now, analysts iSuppli, 
have come out with a report saying that Q2 foundry revenues will rise to $3.6bn, up 59.3% from the $2.2bn revenues of Q1.
The increase follows a 1.8% sequential decrease in Q308, a 32.3% decline in Q408, and a 38.2% fall in Q109.
"The foundry market in the second quarter is benefitting from both a major reduction in semiconductor inventories throughout the electronics supply chain and innovative new designs requiring innovative technology," said Len Jelinek, director and principal analyst, semiconductor manufacturing, for iSuppli, "however, while this growth will come as a relief to the foundries, it will not result in 2009 being a growth year for the foundry industry. Sustainable semiconductor growth will come only when the global economy recovers and consumers return to more normal patterns of purchases."
For all of 2009, the pure-play foundry market will underperform the overall semiconductor industry, with foundries suffering a revenue decline of 26.5 percent, estimates iSuppli.
The foundry market's disastrous performance in the first quarter was reflected in the weak results of the Top-10 players, nine of which suffered double-digit percentage declines in revenue, both on a sequential and a year-over-year basis.
The best performers among the Top-10 were Chartered Semiconductor and the newly-combined Tower Semiconductor and Jazz Semiconductor.
No. 3 ranked Chartered managed to outperform the overall foundry market by limiting its year-over-year sales decline to 43.4%. Company market share increased to 11.3% in the first quarter of 2009, up 2.8 points from 8.5% during the same period in 2008.
Tower's revenue remained flat compared to a year earlier, allowing the company to expand its share by 1.5 points to 2.6%, up from 1.1 percent in Q108.
"Chartered's and Tower's relatively strong performances in the first quarter were due to acquisitions that expanded their revenue, rather than organic growth," Jelinek said.
Chartered purchased an 8-inch manufacturing facility previously operated by Hitachi Semiconductor, while Tower acquired Jazz.
"Although 2009 will continue to be a challenging year for pure-play foundries, those companies that took aggressive actions to strategically prepare for the future in the second half of 2008 will emerge with increased market share and financial strength," Jelinek said.