By Kim Yoo-chul
Samsung Electronics has managed to significantly narrow its gap with Intel thanks to convincing growth in memory and logic chips, according to a leading market research firm Sunday.
U.S.-based IHS said the firm's global share as of the second quarter of this year was 12 percent in terms of sales in both chip sets, which reached $10.3 billion.
Among the Top 20 in the market, Samsung was the fastest growing company at more than 10 percent, while Qualcomm was the worst performer with a 13 percent decline.
Its share gap with long-time global leader Intel has been narrowed by 1.6 percentage points; the closest since Samsung advanced into the semiconductor industry more than two decades ago, said company officials.
Intel's share in the second quarter was 13.6 percent worth $11.7 billion. Over the past few years, the gap between the two semiconductor majors has narrowed from 6.9 percentage points in 2011, 6 percentage points in 2012 and 3.4 percentage points in 2014.
Market analysts say Samsung may become the world's biggest semiconductor supplier this year by beating Intel as the company's logic-chip division, which was relatively weaker than its conventionally strong memory chips, is seeing a steep rise thanks to orders from major technology firms to manufacture chips on a contractual basis.
Samsung produces chips for Nvidia, Sony and Qualcomm with its own design to guarantee better production yields and stability.
Also, its latest partnership with GlobalFoundries of the United States has significantly lessened worries over "geopolitical risks," helping it get more orders for logic chips, which are much more profitable than memory chips.
The foundry model refers to the separation of a chip-plant operation from an integrated-circuit design operation. Samsung was weak in logic chips which are needed for advanced technology devices.
It is currently focusing on applying 14-nanometer processing technology to fabricate mobile processor chips for its biggest client, Apple, meaning that Samsung chips will control an entire computing system inside iPhones.
A turnaround in smartphone demand is also cited as another factor helping Samsung get closer to Intel.
"In short, we see an inventory correction in smartphones delaying second quarter chip price stabilization, but as this is resolved, next year will move back to an undersupply for both DRAM and NAND. For memory stocks, we think short-term prolonged weakness is already anticipated but recovery in 2016 is not at all understood and hence provides an opportunity," said Bernstein Research's Mark C. Newman, in a recent note to clients.
"For NAND flash-type chips, we have an industry undersupply next year as smartphones improve and solid state-drive (SSD) demand continues to ramp up. Even if there is no increase in smartphones, the situation will be balanced and improved on versus this year," Newman said.
The IHS data also showed that SK hynix is the world's No. 3 semiconductor maker by outselling Qualcomm with a global share of 4.9 percent mostly because of huge growth in its memory chip business.
"SK hynix remains our best pick amongst pure play memory makers. SK hynix is already pricing an 81 percent PC DRAM price correction and is the best bargain amongst all memory names in our coverage," Bernstein said.
Korean Language
삼성, 인텔과 점유율 격차 1.6%P…역대 최저
삼성전자가 세계 최대 반도체 기업 인텔과의 시장 점유율 격차를 역대 최저 수준으로 줄였다.
글로벌 반도체 시장 '톱 20' 업체 중 2분기에 가장 큰 폭의 성장을 이뤄낸 덕분이다.
27일 시장조사기관 IHS에 따르면 삼성전자는 2분기 103억6천600만달러의 매출을 올려 시장 점유율 12.0%를 기록했다. 메모리, 비메모리 분야를 모두 아우른 수치다.
반도체 시장 부동의 1위 인텔은 2분기 117억9천700만달러의 매출로 점유율 13.6%를 올렸다. 삼성과 인텔의 점유율 격차는 1.6%포인트다.
양사의 점유율 차이가 1%대로 진입한 것은 이번 분기가 처음이다.
인텔과 삼성전자의 점유율 격차는 2011년 6.9%포인트에서 2012년 6.0%포인트, 2013년 4.3%포인트, 2014년 3.4%포인트로 좁혀져왔다.
올해 1분기에는 2.1%포인트로 줄어들더니 마침내 1%포인트대로 진입한 것이다.
삼성전자는 또 사상 처음 분기 매출 100억달러를 돌파했다. 인텔에 이어 전 세계 반도체 기업 중에는 두 번째다.
삼성전자는 지난 분기와 비교해 점유율이 0.8%포인트 상승해 20위권 업체 중 가장 높은 상승폭을 보였다.
인텔은 0.3%포인트 상승했다.
SK하이닉스는 2분기 42억900만달러의 매출을 올려 시장점유율 4.9%를 기록했다. SK하이닉스는 칩 분야의 강자인 미국 퀄컴(4.5%)을 제치고 반도체 시장 점유율 순위 종합 3위로 올라섰다.
삼성전자는 메모리 분야에서는 20나노 D램, V낸드 등 초격차 기술로 시장 지배력을 강화하고 있고 시스템 반도체 분야에서도 업계 최초로 14나노 핀펫 공정을 적용한 모바일 AP를 양산하고 있다. (연합뉴스)