Global foundry companies are to see their revenue grow 2.4 percent annually this quarter, falling behind their traditional peak-season growth amid a US-China trade dispute, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday.
The figure would be less than the 4 percent annual growth a year earlier amid a prolonged supply chain inventory digestion, which would weaken seasonal growth in the second half, the Taipei-based market researcher said.
The trade dispute is shrinking consumer spending on almost all electronics categories from mobile phones, notebook computers and tablets to TVs, TrendForce added.
“TrendForce thus expects the rebound in the semiconductor market during this year’s second half to be significantly weaker compared with the same period of the previous years,” the researcher said in a report.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which commands a 50.5 percent share of the global foundry market, is to see revenue rise 7 percent annually to US$9.15 billion this quarter, thanks to strong demand for its 7-nanometer chips from major clients, such as Apple Inc, HiSilicon Technologies Co (海思), Qualcomm Inc and Advanced Micro Devices Inc, the report said.
“The capacity utilization rate of the 7-nanometer process technology is now approaching 100 percent. At the same time, TSMC is seeing returning demand for some of its legacy processes,” TrendForce said.
TrendForce’s forecast matched TSMC’s revenue guidance of US$9.1 billion to US$9.2 billion for this quarter, fueled by launches of premium smartphones, an acceleration of 5G deployment and increasing adoption of 7-nanometer technology.
Samsung Electronics Co ranked a distant second with a market share of 18.5 percent, the report said.
The South Korean chipmaker is to see revenue grow 3.4 percent to US$3.35 billion this quarter, attributable to rising demand for 5G chips from within the company and from Qualcomm.
GlobalFoundries Inc ranked third with a market share of 8.3 percent.
The company is to see revenue decline 6.28 percent annually this quarter to US$1.51 billion, the report said.
United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) was fourth with a market share of 6.7 percent.
The company is to see revenue fall 6.49 percent annually to US$1.21 billion this quarter, while Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯國際) ranked No. 5 with a market share of 4.4 percent as revenue fell 6.07 percent to US$799 million this quarter, the report said.
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