Foundry sector to grow, but consolidation likely

Predicting revenues for the sector will grow by 21% to $21.6billion, iSuppli believes consolidation will come to the fore, with the industry likely to be dominated by three major players – TSMC, UMC and Globalfoundries. Len Jelinek, iSuppli director and chief analyst for semiconductor manufacturing, noted: "Next year is likely to bring a new set of challenges, as the rising cost of competition winnows down the number of players in the market. "The expense of developing and implementing next generation processes for a variety of technologies is rising rapidly. The only way to be a leader and outperform the market is to stay at the cutting edge of semiconductor process development. Only companies with sufficient size can support these costs." Although some acquisitions have already been made – the most recent of which was the deal between Chartered Semi and Globalfoundries – a number of deals are set for the near future. HeJian Technologies is being acquired by UMC, a move that will reinstate UMC as the number two ranking foundry. Meanwhile, SMIC is thought likely to acquire Cension and Wuhan Xinxin. Smaller foundries are seen by iSuppli to be struggling.