The top 5 semiconductor suppliers accounted for 47% of the world’s semiconductor sales in 2018, an increase of 14 percentage points from 10 years earlier (Figure 1), says IC Insights' report. In total, the 2018 top 50 suppliers represented 89% of the total $514.0 billion worldwide semiconductor market last year, up seven percentage points from the 82% share the top 50 companies held in 2008.
The report also reveals that the top 5, top 10, and top 25 companies’ share of the 2018 worldwide semiconductor market increased 14, 15, and 11 percentage points, respectively, as compared to 10 years earlier in 2008. With additional mergers and acquisitions expected over the next few years, IC Insights believes that the consolidation could raise the shares of the top suppliers to even loftier levels.
There was a wide 66-percentage point range of year-over-year growth rates among the top 50 semiconductor suppliers last year, from 56% for Nanya to -10% for Fujitsu. Nanya rode a surge of demand for its DRAM devices to post its great full-year results, identifies IC Insights.
However, evidence of a cool down in the memory market last year was evident in the company’s quarterly sales results, which saw its sales drop from $826 million in the second quarter of last year to $550mn in 4the fourth - a 33 percent plunge. Overall, four of the top seven growth companies last year—Nanya, SK Hynix, Micron, and Samsung—were major memory suppliers.
Although Nanya registered the highest percentage increase, Samsung had the largest dollar volume semiconductor sales increase, a whopping one-year jump of $17.0bn.
In total, only nine of the top 50 companies registered better growth as compared to the 2018 worldwide semiconductor market increase of 16 percent, with five companies logging increases of ≥30 percent, continues IC Insights.
In contrast, the report identifies only three of the top 50 semiconductor companies logging a decline in sales last year, with Fujitsu being the only company to register a double-digit sales drop.
