Global semiconductor industry revenue growth of 7.9%

Gartner released preliminary statistical results recently. In 2014, global semiconductor revenue totaled US$339.8 billion, an increase of 7.9% from US$315 billion in 2013.

The growth rate of consolidated revenue of the top 25 semiconductor manufacturers was 11.7%, which was better than the overall performance of the industry. The top 25 vendors accounted for 72.1% of the overall market revenue, which is higher than 69.7% in 2013.

Andrew Norwood, vice president of research at Gartner, said: "From a group perspective, DRAM manufacturers outperform other semiconductor manufacturers. This trend began in 2013 when the DRAM market thrived due to both supply reduction and price stabilization, and continues to this day. Revenue thus increased by 31.7% in 2014. The sales of some important types of equipment, such as application-specific integrated circuits, discrete components and micro components, have fallen from those of 2013, and all types of equipment achieved growth in 2014. The memory market is particularly good, with an increase of 16.9% in 2014. If you exclude memory revenue, the growth rate of the rest of the market is 5.4%, still significantly better than 0.8% in 2013."

In 2014, Intel finally bottomed out after a few consecutive recessions, achieving a growth of 4.6%. The company reorganized itself in 2014 and reclassified it into five divisions, of which the data center division is still the company's most robust unit. Intel has no chance to reach its goal of producing 40 million flat-panel processors in 2014, but these processors all use a large price discount as an inducement factor. On the PC side, Intel continues to erode AMD’s market share. Gartner predicts that Intel’s notebook and desktop shipments in 2014 will be higher than in 2013. Intel has been ranked first in the market for 23 consecutive years, and it also achieved a 15.0% share of the semiconductor market in 2014, but it is still slightly less than the peak of 16.5% in 2011.

Norwood pointed out: "In 2014, DRAM revenue will be as high as 46 billion U.S. dollars, and rewrite the historical record last time set in 1995. However, considering the semiconductor market share, DRAM accounted for only 13.5 percent of 2014 revenue. About %, only half of the 27.9% in 1995."

SK hynix and Micron Technology are the biggest beneficiaries of the strong growth in the memory market, with the fastest growth among the top ten manufacturers. The vigorous development of the DRAM market has enabled SK hynix to achieve a substantial increase in revenue for the second consecutive year. DRAM accounts for approximately 80% of the company's revenue.

2014's 41% growth rate of Micron Technology makes the company rank one promotion. The company's acquisition of Elpida in 2013 made it one of the fastest growing companies among the top 25 semiconductor manufacturers. Micron’s DRAM performance was slightly inferior to the overall DRAM market due to its Fab7, which was converted from production DRAM to NAND to accommodate the subsequent production adjustment of Elpida.

In 2014, mergers and acquisitions among major manufacturers were significantly more enthusiastic than in the previous year. The most notable of these was the acquisition of LSI by Avago Technologies, which for the first time made it to the top twenty-five semiconductor manufacturers list. In addition, Morningstar Semiconductor finally merged with MediaTek after a long process, and ON Semiconductor acquired Aptina Imaging. After adjusting through mergers and acquisitions, the revenue growth rate of the top 25 vendors exceeded 10.0%.