Samsung is the world’s largest DRAM circuit manufacturer but during the first quarter of 2007 they’ve gained a powerful opponent with Hynix. The first quarter of 2007 was an overall weak period for the DRAM market as the global revenue went down by 9.9%. Hynix was one of the few manufacturers that actually improved its figures; an increased revenue at 4.1%, going from 2.1 billion (Q4 2006) to 2.2 billion dollar (Q1 2007). In turn, Samsung dropped 15.9% compared to the fourth quarter of 2006, from 3 billion to 2.5 billion dollar. This meant that Samsung had 26.1 percent of the DRAM market during the first quarter, while Hynix had 22.2 percent. Third place was held by Qimonda with 13 percent.
If we look at the number of shipped DRAM circuits, Hynix managed to climb above Samsung during the first quarter. It shipped more than 470 million circuit, 22.7 percent of all circuits, while Samsung supplied 461 million circuits; 22.3 percent.
The DRAM survey published by iSuppli points out that the Japanese manufacturer Elpida was the one that improved the most by increasing its unit sales by 40% since the last period.
“Elpida displaced Micron in the fourth quarter last year in terms of unit shipments and now has only a marginal gap from the number-three supplier, Qimonda. Elpida grew its bit shipments by a stunning 40 percent, compared to single-digit growth by Samsung and Qimonda. Hynix, Elpida, Promos and Powerchip in the first quarter achieved more than 100 percent bit production growth compared to the first quarter of 2006. This means that the partnerships of Hynix/Promos and Elpida/Powerchip are outgrowing their competitors and increasing their market shares.”
