Semiconductor Shipments to Greater China Grow 12% to US$66.3 Bn in 2006

Jul 20, 2007 19:50 Yukiko Kanoh, Nikkei Electronics

iSuppli Corp has announced the results of its survey on the semiconductor market of so-called "Greater China" including China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Semiconductor shipments to that region increased 11.8% year-on-year (YoY) to US$66.3 billion in 2006.

Semiconductor shipments to the China/Hong Kong market rose 15.8% YoY to US$44.8 billion, while those to the Taiwanese market grew 4.2% YoY to US$21.5 billion.

According to iSuppli's analysis, Greater China marked a two-digit percentage growth reflecting the remarkable growth in the China/Hong Kong market. Meanwhile, shipments remained almost flat in the Taiwanese market because Taiwanese ODM (original design manufacturer) companies were shifting production to Mainland China.

TI, Hynix Semiconductor and AMD Growing in Greater China

By manufacturer, Intel Corp was the leading supplier that posted US$8.404 billion sales to Greater China in 2006. The shipments, however, represented an 8.1% decline from 2005.

The second leading supplier was Texas Instruments Inc (TI), which marked shipments of US$4.408 billion, about half the shipments of Intel. TI's shipments, however, soared 32.2% YoY, reflecting the increased mobile phone production at some of its large-rot clients in Greater China.

Ranked third was Hynix Semiconductor Inc of Korea, which saw memory business sharply grow and shipments hike 59.9% YoY to US$3.475 billion. The fourth Samsung Electronics Co Ltd of Korea marked a 2.5% YoY drop in shipments to US$3.454 billion.

Both the fifth Franco-Italian STMicroelectronics NV and sixth Toshiba Corp saw shipments rise about 10% YoY to US$2.927 billion and US$2.496 billion, respectively. NXP Semiconductors of Netherlands took seventh place with shipments decreasing 1.3% YoY due to restructuring to US$2.32 billion.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), which ranked ninth, achieved large 144% YoY shipment growth to US$1.784 billion through the acquisition of ATI Technologies Inc of Canada. The tenth Qualcomm Inc's shipments were US$1.462 billion, which represents a 19% YoY growth, smaller than the growth in 2005, reflecting a slowdown in its CDMA mobile phone business.

Top Supplier Intel's Shipments Lower 13% YoY in the China/Hong Kong market

In the China/Hong Kong market, the leading supplier was Intel as in Greater China. Intel topped following last year, but its shipments declined 13.3% YoY as a result of fierce competition with AMD.

TI took the second position for three consecutive years. Key factors behind AMD's favorable performance were its production line's great performance and effective marketing strategy, according to iSuppli's analysis.

Hynix Semiconductor was ranked third aided by favorable shipments of DRAM products. The fourth STMicorelectronics, fifth Toshiba and eighth Freescale Semiconductor Inc maintained solid growth of around 15% YoY, respectively.

On the other hand, both the sixth Samsung Electronics and seventh NXP Semiconductors saw their shares shrink. AMD took tenth place with shipment value skyrocketing 116.6% YoY.

Taiwan Focuses on Data Processing Products

Semiconductor supplier rankings in Taiwan differ from those in China/Hong Kong. While China/Hong Kong focuses on consumer electronics and wireless equipment, Taiwan concentrates mainly on design and manufacturing for data processing systems.

Top 10 suppliers included Intel, Samsung Electronics, Powerchip Semiconductor Corp of Taiwan, Hynix Semiconductor, NVIDIA Corp and AMD, companies that deal with microprocessors, DRAMs and graphic cards as part of their product lineup.

TI, STMicroelectronics and NXP Semiconductors were also in the top 10 ranking because their analog and power products are needed for data-processing applications, according to iSuppli.

Broadcom Corp ranked seventh in this category because of its popular products for data communications.

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