TSMC market share up in Q3, leaves Samsung further behind: TrendForce

Taipei, Dec. 7 (CNA) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) retained the No. 1 title in the global pure-play wafer foundry business in the third quarter of this year, seeing its market share growing to 64.9 percent to leave South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co., the No. 2 supplier, further behind, according to the Taipei-based TrendForce Corp.

In a research report, TrendForce said TSMC posted US$23.53 billion in sales in the July-September period, up 13.0 percent from a quarter earlier, which boosted its market share to 64.9 percent, up from 62.3 percent in the second quarter.

TSMC benefited from the debut of flagship smartphone products, as well as strong demand for high-performance computer (HPC) devices, which helped it report an increase in revenue in the third quarter, TrendForce said, adding that the chipmaker also saw an increase in production capacity utilization and wafer shipments.

On the other hand, Samsung, with its clients' products approaching the end of the life cycle and the company facing rising competition in mature processes from Chinese rivals, posted US$3.36 billion in sales in the third quarter, down 12.4 percent from a quarter earlier, TrendForce said.

Despite retaining the No. 2 position, Samsung's market share fell to 9.3 percent in the third quarter, down from 11.5 percent in the second quarter, leaving it further behind TSMC, according to TrendForce.

In the third quarter, the aggregate sales of the world's top pure-play wafer foundry operators stood at about US$34.9 billion, up 9.1 percent from a quarter earlier, TrendForce said, breaking the record set during the COVID-19 pandemic.

TrendForce attributed part of the growth to the substantial contributions from the advanced 3-nanometer process.

China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) came in third place after posting US$2.17 billion in revenue in the third quarter and a market share of 6.0 percent, ahead of Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corp. (US$1.87 billion, 5.2 percent), and U.S.-based GlobalFoundries Inc. (US$1.74 billion, 4.8 percent), the research report showed.

China's Huahong Group took the sixth spot after generating US$799 million in revenue in the third quarter and securing a 2.2 percent market share.

It was followed by Israel's Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (US$371 million, 1.0 percent), Taiwan's Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp. (VIS) (US$366 million, 1.0 percent), Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (PSMC) (US$336 million, 0.9 percent), and China's NexChip Co. (US$332 million, 0.9 percent), the report added.

Looking ahead, TrendForce said robust global demand for emerging technologies is expected to boost sales of the world's top 10 pure-play wafer foundry operators in the fourth quarter, with a tight supply in sophisticated 5nm and 3nm processes expected to fail to meet solid demand.

However, demand for mature processes, which refers to the 28nm and lower-end technologies, will see little change or rise slightly in the fourth quarter, TrendForce said.