Semi Industry 2005 Revs Beat Boom of 2000

Online staff -- Electronic News, 4/13/2006

Worldwide semiconductor revenue totaled $235 billion in 2005, a new record that surpassed the previous high of $223 billion set in the dot com boom times of 2000.

The new high marked a 5.7 percent increase over 2004’s total, according to a new report issued by analyst firm Gartner.

Personal computers and cellular telephones remain the largest drivers for semiconductor business,” said Richard Gordon, research VP at Gartner, in a statement. “The popularity of MP3 players, however, accounted for dramatic growth among flash memory vendors in 2005.”

In the ranking of the top 10 semiconductor suppliers, the top three – Intel, Samsung and Texas Instruments -- remained firmly entrenched in their positions.

That high PC demand kept Intel in first place as the top semiconductor supplier in 2005. The chip giant’s revenue grew at 12.6 percent, twice the market average.  Commodity memory demand kept Samsung in the number two spot.  The Korea-based chipmaker held the number one position in DRAM, SRAM and NAND flash in 2005.

Also on the memory side, Hynix Semiconductor moved into the top 10 for the first time in 2005, Gartner said. The company’s NAND flash revenue reached $1.5 billion, up from just $212 million in 2004 – an increase of more than 600 percent.  The company grew 23 percent year-over-year, the fastest growth among the top 10, according to Gartner.

The entire NAND flash memory segment grew 71 percent between 2004 and 2005. Other fast growth markets included CMOS image sensors at 28 percent, and consumer ASICs at 14 percent. The wireless ASIC segment, where Texas Instruments was the market leader, grew 9 percent last year.

The regional trend of sales moving towards Asia/Pacific continued in 2005, Gartner said. The Asia/Pacific region, which includes China, Taiwan, Korea and Singapore, accounted for 44.5 percent of worldwide semiconductor revenue, and the region experienced the strongest growth in 2005 – 11 percent. The Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region saw the next strongest revenue growth with 4 percent, according to Gartner. The Americas had 1 percent growth in 2005 and Japan was flat with revenue increasing 0.2 percent.

Rounding out the top 10, Toshiba ranked number 4 followed by STMicroelectronics, Renesas Technology, Infineon Technologies, Philips Electronics, Hynix Semiconductor and finishing out with NEC Electronics at number 10.