Semiconductor foundry grew for the 10th consecutive quarter.
🟦 Semiconductor Foundry Ranking
According to TrendForce, global foundry production in the fourth quarter of 2021 was $29.55 billion, up 8.3% from the previous quarter. There are two main factors. One reason is that production capacity is being increased due to semiconductor shortages in legacy process products such as PMICs, Wi-Fi, and MCUs. Two, the average selling price increased due to increased production of more expensive products.
The foundry has not changed its ranking to the Top 5 and accounts for about 90% of the global market share.
Forecast for Q2022 1
Growth is expected to be slightly slower in the first quarter than in the fourth quarter, as Greater China will have fewer business days due to the Lunar New Year holiday.
🟦 Top 5 foundries grow
The top five companies in the foundry industry all had positive growth.
TSMC
Thanks to the new iPhone, revenue for 5nm soared, but revenue for 7/6nm decreased due to the downturn in China’s smartphone market. Nevertheless, it increased by 5.8% sequentially and continues to account for more than 50% of the global market share.
Samsung Electronics
Mass production of new flagship smartphone products resulted in a 15.3% increase from the previous quarter. Samsung’s foundry business is generating record revenue, but overall profitability continues to decline due to the slow launch of its 5/4nm process manufacturing capabilities.
UMC
The impact of capacity increases and price revisions has not yet been reflected in the fourth quarter. As a result, the growth rate was 5.8% from the previous fiscal year, which was only below the average.
GlobalFoundries
Benefited from the release of new production capacity, optimization of product configurations, and pricing of new long-term contracts. It reached $1.85 billion, up 8.6% from the first half of the fiscal year.
SMIC
It was impacted by growing demand for products such as HVs, MCUs, ultra-low-power logic, and specialty memory, as well as adjustments in product mix and higher average selling prices. Revenue was $1.58 billion, or 11.6% quarter-on-quarter.
🟦Summary
Semiconductor foundry, no change to the top ranking.
Chinese foundries such as SMIC were expected to stagnate growth as they could no longer import U.S. technology. However, we have firmly captured the demand for legacy processes and our foundry business in China is growing.
