Korea Became World’s Second-largest Semiconductor Manufacturer in 2013

According to market research firm IC Insights on January 16, South Korea was home to 19.6% of the global production of 200mm wafers as of December 2013, becoming the world’s second largest semiconductor manufacturing country. The US topped the list. 

Among the top 10 global semiconductor suppliers, four US firms made up 22.1% of the total. Two Korean and two Taiwanese companies were in the world rankings, but Korea beat Taiwan in market share. As for Japan and the EU, only one Japanese firm and one European company ranked among the world’s top 10. 

By company, Samsung held the top spot, manufacturing 1.867 million sheets of wafers per month, which accounted for 12.6% of the total. The Korean tech giant is reportedly focusing on the production of semiconductor memory such as DRAM and NAND flash memory.

SK Hynix, on the other hand, comprised 7% by manufacturing 1.035 million pieces, which placed the firm in the fifth spot. It is also said to be devoting most of its production capabilities to semiconductor memory. Thus, the significance of CMOS image sensors and system semiconductors is considered to be minimal. 

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) was in second place. The firm constituted 10% with monthly production of 1.475 million sheets. Micron captured 9.3% of the market with 1.38 million pieces per month, which put the US firm in the third spot. The next spot was taken by a joint venture between Toshiba and SanDisk, which represented 8% of the total with 1.177 million sheets. 

Intel (961,000 pieces, 7%) ranked 6th, followed by ST (551,000, 3.7%). The eighth, ninth, and tenth spots were taken by UMC (520,000, 3.5%), Global Foundries (482,000, 3.3%), and TI (441,000, 3%).