The 1st Quarter of the Semiconductor Foundry Industry to be a 'struggle'
Most sales declined ... 200mm is the only one that stayed stable
In the first quarter, sales of most foundry companies showed a downward trend. Businesses whose main market is the 300mm foundry business particularly showed weakness.
According to the Topology Research Institute (TRI) in Taiwan, foundry industry sales in the first quarter were 16.5 trillion won ($ 14.62 billion), down 16 percent from the same period last year.
Most of the top 10 foundry companies experienced a sales decline. TSMC ranked in first place with 48.1% of the market share had the sales growth of -17.8% in the first quarter. In addition to TSMC, the 1st quarter sales of Samsung SDI (-14.4%), Global Foundry (-18.4%), UMC (-18.1%), SMIC (-21.3%) as well as Powerchip declined by two digits compared to the same period last year. This has been attributed to the sharp decline in demand. In the case of TSMC, the recent wafer failures have had a significant impact.
On the other hand, Vanguard, Hwahong Semiconductor, and DB Hitech, whose specialty is 200mm wafer foundry, recorded one digit growth rate. Only TowerJazz experienced a slight sales decrease.
To overcome the current situation, according to TRI, TSMC plans to expand the order amount for major customers including HiSilicon, Qualcomm, Apple, and AMD this year. Samsung Electronics will also expand its 300mm customer base and strengthen its capabilities in the 200mm business. TRI estimated that Samsung Electronics aims to achieve a 25% market share by 2023.
TRI explained, "If the situation in the first half does not improve, the foundry industry will not be able to avoid negative growth this year."