Samsung Holds 14.7% Share Overall... SK Hynix Ranks 4th
[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] The wafer production capacity of the top 5 memory semiconductor and foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) companies, including Samsung Electronics, Taiwan's TSMC, the US's Micron, SK Hynix, and Japan's Kioxia, accounted for 54% of the total last year. Samsung Electronics held the largest share at 14.7%, while SK Hynix ranked 4th with 9.0%.
On the 10th (local time), market research firm IC Insights announced the results of a survey on semiconductor wafer (200mm standard) production capacity as of December last year. The top 5 companies accounted for 54% of wafer production capacity, an increase of 1 percentage point compared to the previous year. Considering that the top 5 companies' share was 36% about 10 years ago in 2009, it confirms that their influence is growing. The ranking of the top 5 companies remained the same as in 2019.
Samsung Electronics, ranked first, recorded a monthly wafer production of 3.06 million units as of December last year, a 4% increase from the previous year, accounting for 14.7% of the world's total capacity. IC Insights explained, "Samsung Electronics converted the DRAM fab of Line 13 in Hwaseong into an image sensor line, which partially excluded some production, so the increase in production in 2020 was lower than expected," adding, "If all of Line 13 is combined, Samsung's production volume increased by 11% last year."
SK Hynix recorded a monthly wafer production capacity of 1.878 million units during the same period, an 8% increase from the previous year, securing a 9.0% share and ranking 4th globally. The report stated that over 80% of SK Hynix's total production was used for making DRAM and NAND products.
Taiwan's foundry company TSMC ranked 2nd globally with a monthly wafer production of 2.719 million units (a 9% increase from the previous year), holding a 13.1% share. The US's Micron, the world's 3rd largest memory semiconductor company, was evaluated to have a monthly wafer production capacity of 1.931 million units, ranking 3rd in market share. Kioxia ranked 5th, with a 7.7% share including the potential production capacity of its partner Western Digital.
Besides these, Intel, UMC, GlobalFoundries, Texas Instruments, and SMIC were listed among the top 10 wafer production companies.
Meanwhile, when combining the wafer production volumes of pure foundry companies such as TSMC, GlobalFoundries, UMC, SMIC, and Powerchip, the total monthly wafer production capacity was about 5.1 million units. This accounts for approximately 24% of the world's total capacity.
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