Sales at the world’s 10 largest pure-play foundry operators hit new quarterly highs in the fourth quarter of last year, for a 10th consecutive quarter, with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) retaining its position as the world’s largest contract chipmaker, Taipei-based market information advisory firm TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said.
TrendForce on Monday last week said that the top 10 contract chipmakers generated US$29.55 billion in sales in the fourth quarter, up 8.3 percent from a quarter earlier, accounting for 98 percent of the global total.
TSMC posted US$15.75 billion in fourth-quarter revenue, up 5.8 percent from a quarter earlier and accounting for 52.1 percent of the global total, TrendForce data showed.
Photo: Bloomberg
TrendForce said TSMC benefited from the debut of the iPhone 13 series, which went on sale in September last year and boosted the shipment of chips made using its advanced 5-nanometer process.
However, that growth was offset by a downturn in the Chinese smartphone market affecting TSMC chips made using its 6-nanometer and 7-nanometer technologies, it said.
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) took the third spot after generating US$2.12 billion in sales in the fourth quarter, up 5.8 percent from a year earlier and accounting for 7 percent of the global market.
Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) and Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) placed seventh and eighth respectively, with US$619 million and US$458 million in sales, or a 2 percent and 1.5 percent share of the world market respectively.
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co placed second after posting US$5.54 billion in sales in the fourth quarter, up 15.3 percent from a quarter earlier and accounting for 18.3 percent of total global sales.
As Samsung is one of the few contract chipmakers with its own 7-nanometer process, and production based on its 4-nanometer and 5-nanometer processes is increasing, its fourth-quarter sales rose at a double-digit percentage pace, TrendForce said.
Samsung’s sales were also pushed up by smartphone IC designer Qualcomm Inc, whose chips used in flagship smartphone models entered commercial production.
US-based GlobalFoundries Inc posted US$1.85 billion in sales in the fourth quarter to take fourth place with a 6.1 percent global market share, ahead of China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯國際), which posted US$1.58 billion in sales.
Shanghai-based Hua Hong Semiconductor Ltd (華虹半導體) came sixth with US$864 million in sales, ahead of Israel’s Tower Semiconductor Ltd in ninth place with US$412 million in sales and South Korea’s Nextchip Corp in 10th place with US$352 million in sales.
TrendForce said the top 10 contract chipmakers are expected to posts sales growth in the first quarter of this year largely on the back of an increase in average sales prices.
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