DDR surge favours Infineon, Nanya

Surging DDR SDRAM sales backed by higher prices drove Infineon and Nanya respectively into the top three and top five global DRAM suppliers for the first time, according to preliminary data from US market research organisation iSuppli.

But with Samsung extending its market dominance to 32.5 per cent of the world's DRAM chip sales, such shuffles represent relatively slim gains.

Infineon's sales grew 67 per cent year on year, allowing it to nudge ahead of troubled producer Hynix, which experienced far more modest growth of just 11 per cent.

Nanya, a VIA subsidiary, saw its sales grow 153 per cent, driven by a focus on DDR products, allowing it to shoot ahead of Elpida, the NEC/Hitachi joint venture, and Toshiba - the latter experienced a dramatic 37 per cent fall in DRAM sales, falling from sixth place in 2001 to tenth place last year.

Samsung's sales increased 55 per cent, keeping it well ahead of the world's second largest player, Micron. On the basis of these figures, had Micron successfully acquired Hynix's DRAM business last year as it attempted to do, it would be just 1.5 percentage points behind the market leader instead of 14.3.

According to iSuppli, the world DRAM market grew 33 per cent between 2001 and 2002. Taiwanese suppliers increased their share of the market, from eight per cent to 13 per cent, largely at the expense of the Japanese producers. ®