Foundries soar, Japanese IDMs slide in IC sales rankings

Dylan McGrath

August 3, 2012

Dylan McGrath

SAN FRANCISCO—Chip foundries as a group outperformed the rest of the top 20 ranked semiconductor vendors in the second quarter, while Japanese IDMs took it on the chin, according to a new report by market research firm IC Insights.

IC Insights (Phoenix)—which also cut its chip market growth for year—said foundries among the top 20 chip sellers increased sales by a cumulative 20 percent in the second quarter compared to the first quarter, while four Japanese IDMs on the list saw revenue decline 16 percent.

Based on diminished expectations for global GDP, IC Insights halved its forecast for 2012 semiconductor market growth to 3 percent after forecasting 6 percent growth in March. "We have stated all along that the semiconductor industry and worldwide GDP growth rates were going to be very closely correlated this year," said Bill McClean, president of IC Insights, in an email exchange.


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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) posted a 22 percent sequential increase in sales in the second quarter, while Globalfoundries Inc. grew sales by 18 percent and United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) increased sales by 16 percent, according to the August update of IC Insights' McClean report. Globalfoundries moved up five spots to No. 16 on the top 20 list, making it the second largest foundry ahead of UMC. Globalfoundries has claimed to be the No. 2 foundry since late last year.

Underscoring foundries' growth in the second quarter, IC Insights noted that TSMC's second quarter capacity utilization rate was 102 percent--exceeding 100 percent because of the way TSMC defines its utilization rate.


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Overall, the top 20 chip suppliers increased sales by a total of 3 percent compared to the first quarter. Excluding the three foundries, the remaining 17 companies grew sales by only 1 percent sequentially, IC Insights said.

"With the continued success of the fabless companies as well as the strong movement by many IDMs to the fab-lite business model, IC Insights expects the IC foundries to witness very strong demand for their services over the next few years," IC Insights said in a report circulated Thursday (Aug. 2).