Semiconductor Makers Post Record Sales
By Cindy Christ

For the first time since 1995, the worldwide semiconductor market grew at a double-digit rate, with revenues exceeding $160 billion, a 17.6 percent increase over 1998, research firm Dataquest said Thursday.

"One of the key factors for the industry growth was the firming up of the DRAM market," said Joe D'Elia, chief analyst for Dataquest's Semiconductors Europe program, in a report.

"The Taiwan earthquake also had an impact on the market, as it forced spot market prices to treble in a matter of days, and although they fell back quite rapidly, once the full effect was known, the main impact was to accelerate the rate of rise in contract pricing," he added.

According to the report, Intel continued to dominate the market, with revenues $16 billion higher than its nearest competitor, NEC.

Samsung showed the strongest growth among the top 10 vendors, with 1999 revenues increasing 50 percent over last year.

Motorola was the only top-tier manufacturer to post negative growth, caused by the elimination of a major product division and product line.

The top 10 worldwide semiconductor vendors in 1999 by revenue estimates were:

1. Intel (INTC)
2. NEC (NIPNY)
3. Toshiba (TOSBF)
4. Samsung (SSNGF) and Texas Instruments (TXN)
6. Motorola (MOT)
7. Hitachi (HIT)
8. STMicroelectronics N.V. (STM)
9. Philips (PHG)
10 Infineon

Dataquest said that semiconductor makers worldwide are all growing, although the drivers are different in each region.

"While the Internet has contributed to the increase in most regions, its impact on the Americas has been overwhelming," said Ron Bohn, director of research for Dataquest's semiconductor group, in the report.