Taipei, Aug. 24 (CNA) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) was the world's third largest chip supplier in the first half of 2019 while Taiwan-based MediaTek Inc. made the list of the top 15 IC chip suppliers for the first time, according to a recent market survey.
In a research report, market information advisory firm IC Insights said TSMC posted US$14.85 billion in sales in the first six months of 2019, down 9 percent from a year earlier because of inventory adjustments by its clients.
But the world's largest contract chipmaker moved up a notch in the rankings to third, replacing South Korean dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip maker SK Hynix Inc., which saw sales fall 35 percent from a year earlier to US$11.56 billion due to lower product prices.
Taiwanese IC designer MediaTek saw its first half revenue fall 1 percent year-on-year to US$3.69 billion to take the 15th spot, up one spot from a year earlier, IC Insights said.
Among the top 15 IC suppliers in the world, six were from the United States, three were from Europe, two were from Taiwan, two were from South Korea and two were from Japan, according to IC Insights.
The combined sales of the 15 companies fell 18 percent from a year earlier to US$148.72 billion in the first half, a traditional slow season for the semiconductor industry.
U.S.-based Intel Corp. ranked as the largest semiconductor supplier in the world, up one notch from a year earlier, even though its sales fell 2 percent to US$32.04 billion, according to IC Insights.
Intel replaced South Korea's Samsung Electronics Corp. as the world No. 1 after the South Korean DRAM and NAND flash manufacturer saw its sales fall 33 percent from a year earlier to US$26.67 billion because of weakness in the memory chip market, IC Insights said.
Also hurt by lower DRAM prices was Micron Technology Inc. of the U.S., which registered a 34 percent year-on-year decline in sales to US$10.18 billion but still retained the No. 5 spot, IC Insights said.
American IC designer Broadcom Inc. came in sixth after posting US$8.35 billion in sales in the first half, down 7 percent from a year earlier, ahead of U.S.-based IC designer Qualcomm Inc. (US$7.29 billion, down 9 percent).
Rounding out the top 10 were American chipmaker Texas Instruments Inc. (US$6.88 billion, down 6 percent), Japan's Toshiba/Toshiba Memory (US$5.64 billion, down 27 percent), and U.S.-based IC designer NVidia Corp. (US$4.67 billion, down 25 percent), IC Insights said.
