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Home / In The News / Press Releases / October Release
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OCTOBER 28, 1999 PRESS RELEASE |
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TI,
Samsung, and Infineon Forecast to Jump in Top Ten
Ranking Scottsdale, Arizona -- October 28, 1999 -- IC Insights' forecast of the 1999 top ten worldwide semiconductor producers is shown in Figure 1. In total, the 1999 top ten semiconductor producers are forecast to grow by 16 percent (about equal to the worldwide total market increase). It is obvious that no company is on the verge of challenging Intel for the number one ranking. However, after conceding the number one spot to Intel, the remainder of the top ten company rankings are forecast to display some volatility in 1999.
Figure 1 Samsung is forecast to display the highest growth rate of the top ten companies, mostly due to the strong second-half 1999 DRAM market. As shown, Samsung is expected to gain two spots in the 1999 ranking. Infineon is also expected to jump two spots in the rankings, moving from the 10th spot in 1998 to number 8 in 1999. The company is forecast to benefit from the rebound in the DRAM market as well as a surge in analog sales to the communications system market. Two other high-growth companies in 1999's top ten ranking are TI and STMicroelectronics. Both companies are taking advantage of their strengths in leading-edge products. TI is riding the cellular handset boom (+58 percent unit volume growth in 1999) with its analog and DSP products. ST is also taking advantage of the cellular handset surge with its flash memory products. As shown, ST is forecast to surpass the $5.0 billion dollar semiconductor sales level in 1999. The three Japanese companies in the forecasted 1999 top ten ranking are all expected to show only moderate growth. Moreover, most of 1999's growth for these companies will result from exchange rate fluctuations, as the yen per dollar exchange rate moves from 131¥/$1.00 in 1998 to 114¥/$1.00 in 1999. Were it not for exchange rate fluctuations, growth rates for the three Japanese companies would be single-digit amounts. About IC Insights IC Insights, Inc., based in Scottsdale, Arizona, is dedicated to providing high-quality, cost-effective market research for the integrated circuit industry. Founded in October 1997, IC Insights offers coverage of global economic trends, the IC market forecast, capital spending and fab capacity trends, product market details, and technology trends, as well as complete IC company profiles and evaluations of emerging markets for ICs. |
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