Infineon leads industrial chip vendor ranking, says analyst

Peter Clarke

Infineon Technologies AG was the leading vendor of chips for industrial applications in 2011, according to analyst Colin Barnden at Semicast Research Ltd.

Infineon was ahead of Texas Instruments, STMicroelecronics, Analog Devices Inc. and Renesas Electronics in a market worth about $32.4 billion, Semicast said.

The industrial sector has grown by 50 percent over the last two years, with highest revenue growth for analog ICs, LEDs and power discretes. Industrial chip sales have exceeded those of the automotive sector since 2008, Semicast said.

Barnden reckons Infineon had a market share of about 8 percent (about $2.6 billion in sales) in 2011. The top five companies all had more than 5 percent market share (about $1.6 billion). TI rose to second place with its acquisition of National Semiconductor. The top 20 companies accounted for less than 60 percent of the total.

Barnden commented “In practice the industrial sector is a collection of markets within a market, encompassing areas as diverse as video surveillance, heart rate monitoring and agricultural machinery. This diverse application and customer base tends to smooth the ups and downs seen in many other verticals resulting in steady growth. Thus while the industrial sector is fragmented and complex, it is also dependable”.