|
DRAM market share shifts expected in 2006, according to iSuppli |
|
|
|
Feb 13, 2006 at 06:06 PM |
 In 2005, DRAM sales declined for 9 out of the top 10
suppliers, with only Nanya Technology showing a positive increase in
sales over 2004. The market declined to $24.8 billion in 2005, down 6.4
percent from $26.5 billion in 2004. Revenue was reduced by the decline
in the DRAM Average Selling Price (ASP), which reversed a vigorous rise
in unit shipments.
Global per-megabyte unit shipments of DRAM in 2005
rose by 57 percent—but the ASP fell by 40 percent.
Nanya of Taiwan posted DRAM sales of $1.5 billion in 2005, up 28
percent from $1.2 billion in 2004. The company ended 2005 with a market
share of 6.1 percent, up from 4.5 percent in 2004, putting Nanya in
sixth place, up from seventh in 2004. To cap off a good year, Nanya
became the largest DRAM supplier in Taiwan, surpassing Powerchip
Semiconductor Corp.
"Nanya benefited from a 126 percent increase in its DRAM bit shipments
for the year, mainly due to the rapid production ramp-up by its
manufacturing partner, Inotera Memories Inc.," said Nam Hyung Kim,
director and principal analyst with iSuppli.
DRAM market leader Samsung Electronics was able to limit its sales
decline to 0.9 percent, reaching revenues of $7.46 billion in 2005,
down from $7.53 billion in 2004. This allowed Samsung to increase its
market share in 2005 to 30.1 percent, up from 28.5 percent in 2004,
according to iSuppli.
Infineon Technologies AG had the biggest decline among the top-five
DRAM suppliers in 2005, with its revenue falling to $3.2 billion, down
12.4 percent from $3.68 billion in 2004. However, the company
maintained its fourth-place ranking from 2004.
Poor DRAM market conditions persisted in the fourth quarter of 2005,
with only two suppliers achieving sales growth compared to the third
quarter: Nanya and Japan's Elpida Memory Inc. With all the other DRAM
suppliers suffering sales decreases, fourth-quarter DRAM revenue
declined to $6.1 billion, down 4 percent from $6.37 billion in the
third quarter.
With a shift away from DRAM capacity additions and reallocation of
production to NAND Flash in 2006, the three major DRAM suppliers
(Samsung, Hynix and Micron) are all expected to lose market share. This
is compounded by the move from Promos Technologies of Taiwan to expand
300mm DRAM production as well as Elpida and Infineon.
|
News 
