Semiconductor foundry market to grow at a CAGR of 8.4% through to 2019

Technavio, the tech-focused research firm, expects the global semiconductor foundry market to grow at a CAGR of 8.4% from 2014 to 2019.

Source: Technavio.

“Rise in demand for smartphones and tablets will drive the market growth during the forecast period. The availability of low-cost smartphones in emerging markets like China and India and increased access to the Internet worldwide are expected to increase the shipment of smartphones by 2019," said Faisal Ghaus, Vice President of Technavio.

Ghaus pointed out that portable electronic devices like smartphones and tablets become obsolete after a short time. "This is because of rapid launches of next-version models by vendors. The duration of the replacement-cycle period, on an average is 8-12 months. With the reduction in product-replacement-cycle time, the demand for semiconductor wafers in newly launched devices is expected to rise drastically and this will increase the demand for ICs.”

Other market drivers include growth in the semiconductor wafer industry, the emergence of 3D chip packaging and declines in IC cost per function. Technavio forecasts that the industry will see a shift from aluminum to copper interconnections, growing adoption of FinFET architecture, more product miniaturisation, as well as new fabless semiconductor companies entering the market.

Key vendors mentioned by the Global Semiconductor Foundry Market 2015 to 2019 report include GlobalFoundries, Samsung Semiconductor, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC).