Foundry market to grow 43% in '04, says IC Insights
By Mark LaPedus
Silicon Strategies
01/08/2004, 5:37 PM ET
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--Citing a resurgence in communications, the pure-play foundry business is expected to jump 43 percent in 2004 over 2003--a rate that exceeds the forecasted IC industry growth of 27 percent for this year, according to a report from IC Insights Inc.
Overall, pure-play foundry IC sales are expected to display a 23 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2003 through 2008--or 10 points higher than the total IC industry CAGR during the same timeframe, according to IC Insights of Scottsdale.
In 2003, the pure-play foundry IC market increased 31 percent, almost twice the total IC market growth of 16 percent. Of that, foundry sales to the communications market represented 38 percent of the total pure-play foundry IC market in 2003.
In fact, communications has become a major driver in the market. In 2000, the shares of the pure-play foundries' IC sales that went to computer and communications systems were equal at 39 percent.
"However, the pure-play foundry market was hard hit by the steep decline in communications equipment sales in 2001. In 2002, the foundries registered significant increases in sales to wireless communications customers. In 2002, the communications segment of the pure-play foundry business surged 30 percent primarily as a result of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd.'s communications business jumping 58 percent," according to the report.
In total, the pure-play foundry communications IC market exhibited 58 percent growth in 2003. This was more than double the size of the 2001 pure-play foundry communications IC market, according to the report.
In fact, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Pte. Ltd.'s communications IC sales doubled in 2003 while TSMC's and United Microelectronics Corp.'s 2003 communications IC sales increased 61 and 42 percent, respectively. In comparison, the pure-play foundry computer and consumer IC segments grew only 18 and 17 percent, respectively, in 2003. |
