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Photo = Yonhap news |
[Alpha Biz= Kim Jisun] Seoul, June 9 – Samsung Electronics' global foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) market share dropped to the 7% range in the first quarter of 2024, marking its lowest level since market research firm TrendForce began compiling the data. Meanwhile, Taiwan's TSMC strengthened its dominant position, while China's SMIC gained ground amid ongoing geopolitical support.
According to TrendForce, TSMC's market share rose by 0.5 percentage points to 67.6% in Q1 2024 compared to the previous quarter. Samsung’s share declined from 8.1% to 7.7%, a 0.4 percentage point drop. This represents the first time Samsung's global foundry share has fallen into the 7% range.
The combined revenue of the top 10 global foundry companies in Q1 stood at $36.43 billion, down 5.4% from $38.48 billion in Q4 2023. TrendForce attributed this decline to seasonal weakness but noted that urgent orders placed ahead of the expiration of U.S. tariff exemptions and lingering effects from China's consumer subsidy programs helped buffer the downturn.
While TSMC’s smartphone-related wafer shipments fell due to seasonal factors, robust demand for AI and high-performance computing (HPC) as well as last-minute orders to avoid tariffs limited its revenue decline to 5%, totaling $25.5 billion.
China’s SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation) posted gains in both revenue and market share, narrowing the gap with Samsung. SMIC’s Q1 revenue rose 1.8% quarter-over-quarter to $2.25 billion, while its market share climbed by 0.5 percentage points to 6%. The gap between Samsung and SMIC thus narrowed from 2.6 percentage points in Q4 to 1.7 percentage points in Q1.
TrendForce noted that SMIC benefited from strong preemptive inventory buildup in response to U.S. tariffs and ongoing Chinese government subsidies, helping offset declines in average selling prices.
Alphabiz Reporter Kim Jisun(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
