As the top three worldwide chipmakers hung in to keep their coveted leading positions in revenues, the rest of the pack saw significant changes during 1H01, according to recent statistics released by IC Insights, Scottsdale, AZ.

Intel, Toshiba, and NEC remained in the top three spots, bringing in $11 billion, $4.7 billion and $4.4 billion, respectively. STMicroelectronics logged $3.5 billion for 1H01, gaining three positions and moving into the fourth spot. ST’s semiconductor sales only fell 2% in 1H01, the least of any of the top 10 suppliers.

Texas Instruments ranked fifth, according to IC Insights, followed by Samsung with $3.2 billion in sales, dropping two positions due to a 45% decline in DRAM sales in 1H01.

Hitachi nabbed the seventh spot with sales of nearly $3 billion, followed by Motorola, which slid from the sixth to the eighth position due to the massive IC inventory adjustments in the communications industry during 1H01. Motorola’s sales for 1H01 totaled $2.7 billion.

German chipmaker Infineon ranked ninth with sales of $2.6 billion as Mitsubishi gained entry into the group, rounding out the top 10 with sales of nearly $2.4 billion. IC Insights said the faltering of other companies allowed Mitsubishi to gain entrance to the top 10. The market research firm cited examples such as Micron and Hynix, of Korea, which both saw at least a 40% drop in their 1H01 sales. Micron was listed 10th last year, and dropped off the list entirely this year; Hynix was off the list at number 11 last year.

IC Insights expects sequential quarterly growth to return to the semiconductor industry in the third and fourth quarters of 2001. Although the semiconductor market is expected to decline by more than 20% this year, the market research firm forecasts that growth will return in 2002 with an increase of 14% or higher.

Overall top 10 semiconductor sales for 1H01 declined 16%, falling to about $41 billion from the $48.7 billion logged for the same period last year.

— Christina Bruns, WaferNews associate editor