Memory Storage market gets depression in 2019 and Taiwan Semiconductor is expected to back 2nd rank in the world

Global DRAM prices rose sharply in 2017 and 2018, and the output value of Samsung, the giant memory storage manufacturer, overtook Intel and became the leader of the world's semiconductor in 2017 and 2018. However, the trend report of 2019 semiconductor industry was published by Taiwan Institute of Industrial Research a few days ago, it pointed out that DRAM prices will gradually revise in 2019, it is leading to a recession in the memory market. The ranking of large semiconductor factories will be reshuffled, and the output value of Taiwan's semiconductor also has a chance to back to the 2nd rank in the world under this trend. 

Peng Mao-jung, manager of the Institute of Obstetrics and International Strategic Development at the Taiwan’s industrial Institute, said that it should take a cautious look at the economic of 2019; the global semiconductor market is expected to reach US $454.5 billion. The recession of market value reaches 3%, of which the memory market is expected to decline by about 20%. As a result, Intel will overtake Samsung to regain the lead in semiconductors, and TSMC is expected to overtake SK Hynix ranking the third-largest memory chipmaker, TSMC will become the third-largest semiconductor in the world in 2019.

Taking a further observation of Taiwan's semiconductor production, according to the IEK Consulting report of the Taiwan’s Industrial Institute, it mentioned that the output value of Taiwan's semiconductor industry reached NT $2.62 trillion in 2018, a steady growth of 6.4%. In 2019, due to the slowdown in the global economy, the growth momentum of the semiconductor industry has become conservative. It is estimated that the output value of Taiwan's semiconductor industry will grow slightly by 0.9% in 2019. However, The overall performance is expected to remain better than the average performance of global semiconductor industry, the total output value is up to NT $2.64 trillion. 

Refer to the market share of the global semiconductor industry, in 2019, the United States still act as the leader in the world in the highest added value and technical content of semiconductors, and the market share is more than 40 percent, while Taiwan has a chance to overtake South Korea back to the 2nd rank in the world, with a market share of 20%. Among them, the output value of Taiwan's wafer foundry ranks first in the world, with a market share of about 70%; the output value of Taiwan's IC closed test ranks first in the world, with a market share of about 50%.
When it comes to investment in the foresight technology and applications, we are optimistic about the AIoT and Intelligent Systems application markets. The Taiwan’s Industrial Institute suggests that Taiwan's semiconductor industry should not only master the traditional 3C electronics market, we can also actively invest in eight areas in the future: artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of things (IoT), 5G wireless communications, industrial 4.0 / intelligent machinery, car networking / self-driving, VR/AR, high-performance computing (HPC), software and network services. It will take advantage of the market. 

Regarding above comments, Peng Maorong further explained that Taiwan's semiconductor industry invested a lot of effort in the production of components for smart phones in the past. However, in recent years, the growth of the smartphone market has slowed down, it is necessary for supply chain operators to open up new application fields. In order to get more market opportunities, He expects that the multiple applications of AIoT in the future will effectively continue the growth momentum of the semiconductor industry. Therefore, the above eight major areas are the directions in which Taiwan's semiconductor manufacturers can actively invest.