Samsung to recapture top spot in Q2 chip sales: report

Samsung Electronics Co. is expected to become the world's top semiconductor vendor in the second quarter of the year beating its US rival Intel Corp., a report showed Thursday, on the back of strong memory demand.

The South Korean tech giant was projected to log $18.5 billion in semiconductor sales in the April-June period to outperform Intel with $17.9 billion and recapture the leading position for the first time since the third quarter of 2018, according to the McClean Report from market researcher IC Insights.

"Driven by a resurgent memory market and relatively flat sales results from Intel, IC Insights believes that Samsung will again replace Intel as the leading semiconductor producer beginning in 2021," it said. "With the DRAM market on the rise and the NAND flash market forecast to gain momentum in the second half of the year, it appears likely that Samsung will once again position itself at the #1 semiconductor supplier for the full year as well."

Samsung previously led the quarterly semiconductor supplier ranking, which excludes pure-play foundries, for six quarters, from the second quarter of 2017 to before the memory market collapsed in late 2018.

When it comes to the full-year ranking, Samsung held the leading position in 2017 and 2018 but settled for the runner-up spot in the last two years, the report showed.

IC Insights earlier predicted that DRAM and NAND flash are expected to be the two sharpest-growing products this year, with sales growth of 18 percent and 17 percent, respectively.

Samsung is the largest supplier of DRAM and NAND flash. The company said in a conference call last month, it expects DRAM market bit growth to be about 20 percent this year, while that of NAND to be in the mid-30 percent range. (Yonhap)