In a first half ranking of the top 10 worldwide semiconductor suppliers from market research firm IC Insights Inc., Freescale, which ranked eleventh in last year’s ranking, moved up two spots into ninth position.
　　Six of the top 10 companies registered sequential declines in Q2 with the Japanese companies being especially hard hit. Those with sequential declines from Q1 were Intel, Samsung, Renesas, Toshiba, Infineon and NEC.

　　The biggest mover in the top 10 ranking was NEC, which reported revenue that dropped 14 percent in Q2 to $1.3 billion from $1.5 billion in Q1.
　　In total, the top 10 companies’ semiconductor sales declined 2 percent Q2 to$28.5 billion as compared to $29.1 billion in Q1.
　　Interestingly, less than $100 million separated ninth-ranked Freescale from eleventh-ranked Philips in the first half ranking, the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based firm noted.
　　Moreover, using the Q3 outlooks from Freescale, NEC, and Philips, only about $150 million is expected to separate their total semiconductor sales through the first three quarters of the year.
　　Weakness in the Q2 DRAM market was clearly evident from the sequential sales declines registered by Samsung and Infineon, which dropped 5 percent and 4 percent, respectively. However, illustrating that the DRAM market may have bottomed out, both companies are expecting moderate sales improvement in the second half of the year, IC Insights said.
　　As compared to the full-year 2004 top 10 semiconductor supplier ranking, the firm predicts the top three positions are highly unlikely to change this year.
　　At the same time, the number 5 to 7 positions – currently held by Toshiba, STMicroelectronics and Infineon – are truly “up for grabs,” given that in the first half, only $200 million separated Toshiba from Infineon.　 IC Insights also expects stiff competition for the tenth spot between Freescale, NEC, and Philips, currently ranked ninth, tenth and eleventh places, respectively.　 Twelfth place Sony may also have a shot at the tenth position this year, the firm added.
　　Also interesting to note is that when incorporating the top 10 companies’ outlooks for Q3, coupled with IC Insights’ estimates for Q4 sales, the top 10 semiconductor companies are on track to post a 5.6 percent sales increase, comparing full year sales.
　　Excluding Intel from the list, the remaining top 10 companies would post a 2.6 percent year-over-year sales increase – both figures very close to IC Insights’ 4 percent forecasted growth rate for 2005 worldwide semiconductor sales, the firm concluded.