Korean Foundry Manufacturer
It was forecast that Dongbu HiTek will enter the Top Ten in the world semiconductor foundry standings for the first time as a Korean company. A foundry refers to a company which professionally produces semiconductors after receiving plans from the outside like integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) such as Samsung Electronics and Intel. A typical company is Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s biggest foundry and a supplier of mobile chips for Apple’s iPhone.
According to IC Insights, a market survey organization and the semiconductor industry on August 29, it was projected that Dongbu HiTek will place ninth in the global foundry standings by posting US$640 million in sales. IC Insights predicted that Dongbu HiTek will chalk up sales growth of about 8% from a year before.
TSMC was expected to post US$28.5 billion in sales, ranking first. TSMC is a giant that accounts for 58% of total sales in the foundry industry. The company claimed third place in overall semiconductor standings.
TSMC was followed by GlobalFoundries (US), UMIC Group (Taiwan), SMIC (China) and TowerJazz (Israel). It is forecast that sales of SMIC and TowerJazz will record 27% and 39% growth, respectively, this year. The two companies are showing the sharpest growth in the foundry industry.
Placed sixth to tenth were Powerchip (Taiwan), Vanguard (Taiwan), Huahong Semiconductor (China), Dongbu HiTek and SSMC (Singapore). Among the top ten were four Taiwanese and two Chinese companies.
Semiconductor companies in Chinese spoken areas such as Taiwan and China are nearly sweeping the semiconductor foundry market as they have an organic collaboration relationship called “Chaiwan (China+Taiwan) System.
“Dongbu Hi-Tek is struggling in the foundry market dominated by Chinese and Taiwanese companies,” said a representative of the semiconductor industry. Dongbu HiTek is a company that makes sensors for wearable and internet of things (IoT) devices and smartphones and driver ICs for low-power semiconductors, organic light emitting diode (OLED) panels and virtual reality (VR) devices.
Dongbu Hi-Tek had made massive investments since the early 2000s but continued to suffer losses. But recently, mass-production of new products such as fingerprint recognition sensors and the effects of facility expansion empowered the company to successfully go into black. In the second quarter of this year, Dongbu HiTek posted 190 billion won (US$165 million) in sales and 44.2 billion won (US$38.4 million) in operating profit, both of which are record quarterly highs.