Date: 01/02/2012

U.S., S.Korea, and Japan have 85.3% of semiconductor IC revenue share, as per a study

In the semiconductor IC chip industry, the 3 regions dominate by revenue share are U.S., South Korea and Japan. South Korea and Japan more because of the share in DRAM, Flash memory market. IC Insights has shared regional revenue data from its recent Semiconductor IC chip market study. As per its study, these three regions together produce 223.7 Billion$ worth of IC chips constituing 85.3 % of total IC market. Europe though leads in technology, but its focus is not in the major revenue generating IC areas such as processors and memory.

IC Insights states: Driven by the strong performances of ON, Qualcomm, Skyworks, LSI, and Intel, North American companies gained just over three points of marketshare in 2011 to account for 53% of worldwide IC sales (Figure 1), according to the data in the 2012 edition of The McClean Report, IC Insights' complete analysis and forecast of the IC industry. The figures in the chart do not include foundry sales (to prevent double-counting marketshare) or optoelectronic, sensor, or discrete devices. Over the past three years, North American companies have held more than 50% marketshare.

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Figure 1

Although South Korean companies, primarily Samsung and Hynix, continue to be greatly influenced by the fortunes of the memory market, they have gained more than two points of marketshare since 2009. In fact, the South Korean companies surpassed the Japanese companies in IC marketshare for the first time in 2011, as per IC Insights.

IC Insights finds Taiwanese companies lost just over one point of marketshare in 2011 due to the extreme weakness of the DRAM market and the corresponding sales decline by that country's memory suppliers (e.g., Powerchip, ProMOS, and Nanya). While China continues to attract foreign IC production to its country (e.g., TSMC, Intel, and Samsung), its indigenous IC suppliers held only 1.6% of the worldwide IC market. The gain in China's 2011 marketshare is primarily attributable to the success of its fabless IC suppliers like HiSilicon and Spreadtrum, reports IC Insights.