Category: Semiconductors

Worldwide industrial semiconductor revenues grew by 18% YTY in 2014, according to IHS Inc. Global industrial semiconductor revenue in 2014 totaled $40.4 bln, up from $34.3 bln in 2013. The YTY increase follows solid growth of 13% in 2013, a decline of 3% in 2012 and 12% growth in 2011. The strong performance achieved in 2014 represents the highest annual growth rate, since the 36% boom in 2010.

Optical Semiconductor delivered the strongest performance, thanks to the continued strength of the LED market. The highest semiconductor device absolute revenue growth from 2014 to 2019 will come from LEDs, which is expected to grow from $6.3 bln to $12.6 bln—stemming from the global general lighting LED lighting boom, with most countries banning incandescent bulbs in 2014. Discrete power transistors, thyristors, rectifier and power diodes are expected to grow from $6 bln to $7.3 bln, due to the policy shift toward energy efficiency. Microcontrollers (MCUs) are also expected to experience robust growth in the long-term, growing from $4.3 bln to $5.8 bln, because of advances in power efficiency and integration features. Out of more than 27 semiconductor segments, 26 achieved increased YTY growth in 2014. All 7 major semiconductor components grew last year, led by optical,analog integrated circuits (ICs), logic ICs, discretes, microcomponent ICs, memory ICs, and sensors and actuators. Both analog ICs and logic application-specific ICs achieved the strongest turnaround in growth, moving from relatively flat growth in 2013 to over 20% growth last year.

Worldwide PC microprocessor shipments in Q1 2009 fell significantly for the second quarter in a row, according to IDC. In Q1 2009, worldwide PC processor unit shipments declined –10.9% from Q4 2008 to Q1 2009, as compared to –17.0% from Q3 2008 to Q4 2008. Unit shipments declined –13.0% from Q1 2008 to Q1 2009. Market revenue declined –11% from Q4 2009 to Q1 2009, as compared to –18.0% from Q3 2008 to Q4 2008. Revenue declined –25.1% from Q1 2008 to Q1 2009.

Worldwide sales of semiconductors were $14.7 bln in March 2009, a gain of 3.3% from the prior month when sales were $14.2 bln, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reported. Sales for Q1 2009 amounted to $44.0 bln, a 29.9% decline from Q1 2008 when sales were $62.8 bln. Sales declined by 15.7% from the Q4 2008 when sales were $52.2 bln.

The market for IEEE 802.15.4 semiconductors, in both consumer electronics and commercial markets, is set for significant growth over the next five years as the standard becomes the foundation for a host of applications and systems. That growth will see 802.15.4 chipset shipments grow from nearly 15 mln in 2008 to nearly 499 mln in 2014, a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 79.6% over the period, ABI Research says.

Worldwide semiconductor revenue is forecast to reach $194.5 bln in 2009, a 24.1% decline from 2008 revenue. The industry is expected to return to positive growth in 2010, growing 7.5%, followed by additional growth through 2012. Even with three years of increased revenue, the semiconductor industry will fail to return to 2008 revenue totals. In 2012, the worldwide semiconductor revenue is projected to reach $253.4 bln, still below 2008 revenue of $256.4 bln, Gartner said.

Global semiconductor sales fell 22% in December 2008. Semiconductor Industry Association said sales fell to $17.4 bln from $22.3 bln. Sales in December 2008 were down 16.6% from November 2008 levels.

2008 Rank	2007 Rank	Company	2008 Revenue	2008 Market Share (%)	2007 Revenue	2007-2008 Growth (%)
1	1	Intel	34,187	13.1	33,800	1.1
2	2	Samsung Electronics	17,900	6.8	20,464	-12.5
3	3	Toshiba	10,510	4.0	11,820	-11.1
4	4	Texas Instruments	9,792	3.7	11,768	-16.8
5	6	STMicroelectronics	9,652	3.7	9,966	-3.2
6	5	Infineon Technologies (incl. Qimonda)	8,078	3.1	10,194	-20.8
7	8	Renesas Technology	7,849	3.0	8,001	-1.9
8	11	Qualcomm	6,463	2.5	5,619	15.0
9	7	Hynix Semiconductor	6,400	2.4	9,100	-29.7
10	12	NEC Electronics	5,889	2.2	5,593	5.3
		Others	145,180	55.4	147,586	-1.6
		Total	261,900	100.0	273,911	-4.4
Source: Gartner

	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Semiconductor Capital Spending	63,318.6	46,055.9	30,356.1	34,588.8	43,733.2	51,824.0
Growth (%)	5.4	-27.3	-34.1	13.9	26.4	18.5
Capital Equipment	44,743.4	31,055.5	21,204.0	24,957.0	31,363.4	36,482.4
Growth (%)	6.4	-30.6	-31.7	17.7	25.7	16.3
Wafer Fab Equipment	36,004.6	24,867.8	16,642.7	19,351.5	25,009.1	29,727.4
Growth (%)	10.6	-30.9	-33.1	16.3	29.2	18.9
Packaging and Assembly Equipment	5,182.3	3,698.5	2,564.8	3,232.1	3,690.0	3,934.7
Growth (%)	-3.7	-28.6	-30.7	26.0	14.2	6.6
Automated Test Equipment	3,556.5	2,489.3	1,996.6	2,373.4	2,664.2	2,820.2
Growth (%)	-13.7	-30.0	-19.8	18.9	12.3	5.9
Other Spending	18,575.2	15,000.4	9,152.0	9,605.3	12,242.5	15,103.0
Growth (%)	3.1	-19.2	-39.0	5.0	27.5	23.4
Source: Gartner

Semiconductor sales dropped to $20.8 bln in November 2008 from $23.1 bln in November 2007, the Semiconductor Industry Association reported. Sales through the first 11 months of the year rose 0.2% to $232.7 bln. November sales were 7.2% lower than the $22.4 bln in October 2008. Excluding memory products, chip sales declined 4.8% to $17.3 bln.

Gartner found that the semiconductor companies will collect $219.2 bln in revenue in 2009 worldwide, a decline of more than 16% compared to 2008.

SIA expects 2009 chip sales to fall 5.6% to $246.7 bln, following a forecast 2.2% increase in 2008 to $261.2 bln. The trade group expects annual growth to resume in 2010, with chip sales rising 7.4% to $264.9 bln, and increasing another 7.5% to $284.7 bln in 2011.

Global sales of semiconductors are likely to fall 2.2% in 2009 due to weak demand for electronics worldwide, World Semiconductor Trade Statistics said. The chip market will shrink to $256 bln 2009, down from an expected $261.9 bln in 2008, said WSTS.

Worldwide sales of semiconductors grew by 5.5% to $22.7 bln in August 2008 from August 2007 sales of $21.5 bln. Sales grew by 2.4% from July when sales were $22.2 bln, SIA says. Year-to-date sales through August were $170.2 bln, an increase of 4.5% from the same period of 2007 when sales were $162.9 bln. Excluding memory products, industry sales were up by 11.4% YTY in August 2008. Year-to-date sales were 4.5% ahead of 2007 and remain in line with the SIA mid-year forecast of 4.3% growth in 2008. PC unit sales are projected to grow by more than 13% in 2008. Unit sales grew by 9.1% YTY in August 2008, a modest slowdown from July 2008. Worldwide unit sales of cellular handsets remained strong – especially in emerging markets. Unit sales of cellular handsets are forecast to grow about ten% in 2008, with the strongest growth coming from emerging markets.

The global market for nanomaterials for electronics applications will reach $600 mln in 2008 and grow at a compound annual rate of more than 40% to reach nearly $7 bln in 2015, according to The Information Network. The Semiconductor sector will have a 62.1% share of the $600 mln market in 2008, primarily because of utilization of Designer Molecules for DUV photoresists and for Slurries for chemical mechanical planarization (CMP). Nanotubes and Nanowires will enter the market after 2010 and begin to gain share. However, the Semiconductor sector will lose market share to Sensors and RFID, and by 2015 its share will have dropped to 58.1% of the nearly $7 bln market for nanomaterials.

Global semiconductor sales rose 7.6% in July 2008 from July 2007. Worldwide sales were $22.178 bln, up from $20.603 bln a year ago, the Semiconductor Industry Association said. Excluding memory products, semiconductor sales increased by 11.6% YTY and by 3.2% sequentially. The 7.6% increase is down slightly from the 8% increase marked in June 2008.

Worldwide PC microprocessor shipments slowed notably in Q1 2008, resulting in sequential growth of -9.2% over Q4 2007. In YOY comparisons, overall unit shipments and market revenue grew by 25.7% and 15.9% respectively, according to IDC. Shipments of processors for desktop PCs led the slowdown in Q1 2008, with sequential growth of -11.9%. Processors designed for mobile PCs and servers faired slightly better, with growth of -5.9% and -6.0% respectively compared to Q4 2007. All three segments experienced solid YTY growth, however, led by a 42.8% increase in microprocessor shipments for mobile PCs.

In terms of processor vendor shares, Intel experienced a small gain over AMD in Q1 2008. On an overall unit basis, Intel earned 78.9% market share, a gain of 2.2%. AMD earned 20.9% market share, a loss of 2.2%, according to IDC. Similar shifts in market share were evident by form factor. In the mobile processor segment, Intel earned 85.3% market share, a gain of 3.4%, and AMD captured 14.5%, a loss of 3.3%. In the PC server processor segment, Intel earned 87.0% share, a gain of 1.6%, while AMD earned 13.0%, a loss of 1.6% share. Finally, in the desktop PC processor segment, Intel captured 73.1% share, an increase of 1.0%, and AMD earned 26.7% share, a loss of 1.0%.

Global semiconductor sales grew 5.9% in April 2008, the Semiconductor Industry Association reported. Chip sales rose to $21.2 bln in April 2008, up from $20.1 bln in April 2007.

The Communications Chip market generated estimated $36.6 bln in the year 2007. That revenue was generated by shipping an estimated 3.73 bln chips during the year, iLocus says. Texas Instruments leads the market earning around $6.6 bln and thus holding 18% of the communications chip market share. Other leaders in the market include Freescale, ST Microelectronics, Broadcom and Qualcomm. Collectively the top 5 chip vendors had revenues of about $21.3 bln which accounted for 58% of the market revenues. Broadband and cellular chips were the major contributors of revenue to the overall Communications Chip market. Broadband contributed 22.6% of the total revenues while 21.7% were contributed by the chips consumed by cellular devices. Within our segmentation, Optical Networking chips contributed the least i.e. $1.4 bln of the total communications chip revenues for the year.

GPS IC shipments to reach 1 bln annually in 2013. Average Selling Prices (ASPs) will continue to fall, but the effect on vendors’ revenue streams will be more than offset by this strong growth in volume, ABI Research says.