Published : Dec. 7, 2020 - 17:44
This photo provided by Samsung Electronics Co. on May 21, 2020, shows the company's chip plant in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul. (Samsung Electronics Co.)
Samsung Electronics Co.'s share of the global foundry market is expected to decrease in the current quarter from the previous three months, a report showed Monday.
Samsung's share in the global foundry business was estimated at 16.4 percent in the October-December period, down 1 percentage point from three months earlier, according to a report from industry tracker TrendForce.
The South Korean tech giant's revenue from the foundry business was projected to jump 25 percent on-year to $3.71 billion in the fourth quarter of the year, TrendForce said.
But it was not enough to narrow the gap with the industry's leading player, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC).
"Samsung will increase its 5nm production in order to meet the growing demand for smartphone system-on-chips (SoCs) and high performance computing (HPC) chips, in addition to accelerating its extreme ultra violet deployment," TrendForce said. "Moreover, the development of smartphone SoCs manufactured with the 4nm process and the increase in 2.5D advanced packaging capacities will both propel Samsung's earnings performance further."
TSMC is expected to further expand its dominance in the fourth quarter, according to TrendForce.
TSMC's market share for the fourth quarter was estimated at 55.6 percent, up 1.7 percentage points from three months earlier.
The company was projected to post on-year revenue growth of 21 percent to collect $12.5 billion in the fourth quarter.
Another Taiwanese chipmaker, United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) was expected to take the No. 3 spot in the foundry market, with a 6.9 percent share, with its revenue increasing 13 percent on-year to $1.56 billion in the fourth quarter.
South Korea's DB HiTek Co. was estimated to rank 10th with a 0.9 percent market share, TrendForce said. Its revenue was projected to increase 16 percent on-year to $209 million in the fourth quarter.
"Most of DB HiTek's current business includes wafer starts for industry 4.0 chips, such as AI, IoT, and robotics chips," TrendForce said. "DB HiTek's capacity utilization rate has remained at max levels for 16 consecutive months."
Overall, TrendForce expected the combined revenues of the top 10 foundries in the fourth quarter to increase 18 percent from a year earlier to $21.7 billion.
"Demand in the foundry market has remained strong in the fourth quarter of 2020, as production capacities across the industry remain fully loaded, with the tight supply of wafer capacities leading to a price hike in foundry services and subsequently driving up total quarterly industry revenue," it said. (Yonhap)