TI Tops Industrial Semiconductor Ranking

Texas Instruments was ranked the top vendor of semiconductors in the industrial sector in 2015, according to Semicast Research. Rounding out the top five are Infineon Technologies, Intel, STMicroelectronics, and Renesas Electronics.

Semicast estimates TI’s market share at 8.1 percent, followed by Infineon (6.8%), Intel (4.9%), STMicroelectronics (4.4%) and Renesas (3.8%). “Intel passed STMicroelectronics to become the third largest vendor following the acquisition of Altera,” according to the analysis.

The industrial sector is one of the largest market drivers for component manufacturers and distributors in the United States. The United States accounted for 30 percent of all semiconductors used in industrial applications in 2015, followed by China, which consumed about 16 percent of all industrial semiconductors, according to IHS.

The industrial semiconductor market is valued at $40.7 billion in 2015, according to Semicast. The market analysis includes traditional areas such as factory automation, motor drives, lighting, building automation, test & measurement, power & energy, medical electronics and industrial transportation. Semicast excludes the aerospace & defense sector from the analysis.

“In practice the industrial sector is a collection of markets within a market and is heavily fragmented across applications, OEMs and regions,” said Colin Barnden, principal analyst at Semicast Research and study author, in a statement. “Accordingly, it has no dominant semiconductor vendor, with the top ten together accounting for only around 40% of the total. The industrial semiconductor market is also fragmented across product types, with the three largest categories (analog, optoelectronics and MCU/MPU) accounting for around two-thirds of revenues, but with no one vendor strong in all three areas.”

One of the biggest factors influencing the ranking was the merger and acquisition activity in the semiconductor industry, according to Barnden. “Infineon’s acquisition of International Rectifier in January 2015 consolidated its position as number two supplier; Intel’s acquisition of Altera at the end of December 2015 raised it above STMicroelectronics to third, and NXP’s acquisition of Freescale Semiconductor in early December 2015 secured the combined company seventh position in the vendor ranking.”

Barnden’s analysis also finds that TI has not had any significant acquisitions since the purchase of National Semiconductor almost five years ago, and has focused on organic sales growth.

Another issue that had an impact on the rankings were changes in the value of the Euro and Yen relative to the U.S. dollar, according to the report. “Compared with 2014, the Euro was an average of sixteen percent weaker against the U.S. Dollar in 2015, while the Yen was almost thirteen percent weaker,” said Barnden.

However, the industrial sector is one of the biggest markets expected to drive component growth in 2016.

“Revenues for industrial semiconductors have now doubled since 2009, compared with growth of around fifty percent for the total semiconductor market over the same period,” said Barnden. “Companies that may have dismissed the industrial sector in the past would be advised to take a closer look, particularly as medium term growth prospects have slowed in other sectors, such as mobile and PC.”

IHS analysts expect the industrial semiconductor market to reach $59.5 billion in 2019, up from $43.5 billion, driven by increased capital spending and continued economic growth. The biggest market drivers include commercial aircraft, LED lighting, digital video surveillance, climate control, traction and medical devices.