As demand continues to exceed supply, global chip revenue has increased by more than 17% since mid-2021. In the third quarter, the global semiconductor industry's total revenue exceeded US$150 billion, an increase of 13.8% from the previous quarter. Analysts believe this is mainly due to strong memory sales.
Last week, Omdia’s chief semiconductor analyst stated: “Preliminary data shows that the NAND market reached nearly 18.7 billion U.S. dollars in the third quarter of 2021.” The demand of the market, and the stable demand from the smartphone market."
The average selling price of global chips in the third quarter rose nearly 5% from the previous quarter, "because supply and demand are still slightly out of balance." As the shortage of chips caused by the pandemic has delayed, the imbalance between supply and demand has contributed to rising prices. Coupled with seasonal and strong memory revenues, finally driving the chip's total revenue in the third quarter to 153.2 billion US dollars.
According to Omdia's data, storage devices including DRAM, NAND and NOR accounted for 29% of global semiconductor revenue from July to September. In the third quarter, sales in the display driver and image sensor divisions also increased: display revenue increased by 13% quarter-on-quarter, while image sensors increased by 12% in the first three months.
With the surge in demand for memory chips, the main big winner is Samsung Electronics. The Korean memory giant surpassed Intel Corporation in the third quarter and once again became the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer. According to Omdia's data, Intel's microprocessor revenue in the third quarter was almost the same as the previous quarter, with an increase of only 0.5%.
In addition, the leading manufacturers of memory SK Hynix and Micron Technology also benefited from strong third-quarter demand, and Qualcomm and Nvidia also benefited from increased demand.
In addition, the industry organization SEMI reported that the turnover of the semiconductor equipment industry reached a new high for the fifth consecutive quarter, with a year-on-year increase of 38% to US$26.8 billion in the third quarter. SEMI said this was an increase of 8% from the previous quarter. "The long-term strong demand for chips in a wide range of markets, including communications, computing, healthcare, online services, and automobiles, has driven a record quarterly growth in semiconductor equipment."
Among them, in terms of regions, North American chip manufacturers, which are striving to increase domestic production, are leading the way, with orders for IC equipment increasing by 67% quarterly. Orders from Taiwan and Europe are also strong. However, US export restrictions are still hindering orders from Chinese chip manufacturers.
