Top 20 semicon supplier rankings for 2008

USA: IC Insights' research for its March Update to The McClean Report includes an analysis of the top 50 semiconductor, IC, and fabless IC suppliers for 2008.

As shown in Figure 1, there are eight US companies in the top-20 semiconductor ranking (including three fabless semiconductor suppliers), six Japanese, three European, two South Korean, and one Taiwanese company (IC foundry supplier TSMC) in the ranking.

Fig. 1: Top 20 Semicon Sales Leaders, 2008

As shown, it required at least $3.6 billion in 2008 sales to make the top 20 ranking. Although the top five ranked companies remained the same, and most of the other top 20 suppliers moved up or down only one or two spots in the ranking, there were a few companies that displayed significant changes in their 2008 rank as compared to their 2007 positions.

Major changes in the 2008 ranking include:

* The second largest fabless supplier, Broadcom, jumped six positions and is now the 17th largest semiconductor supplier in the world.

* After a disastrous 33 percent decline in IC sales last year, DRAM and flash memory supplier Hynix dropped from 6th in 2007 to 10th in 2008. The company's current annual sales run rate is less than $4 billion.

* Cell phone IC supplier Qualcomm used a 15 percent year-over-year growth rate to jump five spots and rank as the 8th largest semiconductor supplier in 2008.

* DRAM-supplier Qimonda's nightmare worsened in 2008 as the company filed for insolvency and dropped 11 positions from being ranked 18th overall in 2007 to 29th in 2008.

* With a 12 percent decline in 2008/2007 sales, NXP fell five spots to 15th from 10th in 2007.

* Although its sales declined a relatively mild 7 percent in 2008, Japanese DRAM supplier Elpida dropped out of the top 20 ranking.

Fig. 2: Top 20 Semicon Sales Leaders, 2008 by growth rate





Summary

The total 2008/2007 sales of the top 20 semiconductor suppliers displayed a 3 percent decline, matching the total worldwide semiconductor market decline in 2008. Among the top 20 semiconductor suppliers, there were only nine companies that registered an increase in sales in 2008.

As shown in Figure 2, three of the top 20 companies had double-digit 2008/2007 growth rates. It goes to show that even in a "weak" market there are still a few "strong" performers. In contrast, six companies registered double-digit declines in 2008 semiconductor sales.

Source: IC Insights, USA