Semiconductor revenue down 5 pct in 2008

Worldwide semiconductor revenue totalled 255 billion dollars in 2008, down 5.4 per cent from the previous year, the Stamford, Connecticut-based company said.

"The steep decline in the market in the final quarter of 2008, combined with the ongoing economic weakness, signals far worse declines in 2009," it said.

"While sales held up fairly well in the first half of 2008, in the third quarter the industry started to soften as the economy slowed," Gartner analyst Peter Middleton said in a statement.

"By the fourth quarter, sales were deteriorating quickly, causing revenue growth to go into negative territory," he said. "With the market heavily impacted by the recession, we can expect considerable market consolidation going forward."

Gartner said US chip-maker Intel retained its number one position last year for the 17th consecutive year and increased its market share to 13.3 percent although its revenue declined 0.5 per cent to 33.8 billion dollars.

Samsung Electronics was next with a market share of 6.8 percent. Its revenue declined 15 percent to 17.3 billion dollars.

Toshiba was number three with a 4.2 percent market share on revenue of 10.6 billion dollars, a drop of 10.3 percent, followed by Texas Instruments, which also notched up a 4.2 percent market share on revenue of 10.5 billion dollars.

Rounding out the list of top 10 semiconductor vendors were: STMicroelectronics (4.0 percent market share), Infineon Technologies (3.3 percent), Renesas Technology (2.8 percent), Qualcomm (2.5 percent), Hynix Semiconductor (2.4 percent) and NEC Electronics (2.3 percent).

Hynix suffered a 34 percent drop in revenue, from 9.1 billion dollars in 2007 to 6.0 billion dollars last year. Qualcomm's revenue meanwhile grew 15.3 percent to 6.4 billion dollars.

(c) 2009 AFP