LED venture propels Samsung atop optoelectronics ranking

According to the latest data from IC Insights, Samsung Electronics rose to the top of the optoelectronics supplier ranking last year after it gained full ownership of Samsung LED, a 50-50 joint venture in LED that was created in 2009 between Samsung Electronics and affiliate Samsung Electro-Mechanics. The move increased Samsung's optoelectronics sales by 223 per cent to $2.5 billion in 2012 compared to $780 million in 2011, added the market research firm.

The LED operation added $1.5 billion to Samsung's total revenues in 2012. The rest of Samsung's optoelectronics sales come from CMOS image sensors, which generated $975 million in 2012—a 25 per cent increase from 2011. The report from IC Insights showed Samsung as the second-largest supplier of CMOS image sensors in 2012, positioned between top-ranked OmniVision and third-place Sony.

Samsung's huge increase in optoelectronics sales vaulted it to first place in IC Insights' top 30 O-S-D ranking for 2012 from 20th in 2011. High-brightness white LED and blue-laser pioneer Nichia in Japan moved up to second place in the O-S-D ranking from fourth place in 2011 with an 11 per cent increase in optoelectronics sales in 2012. In the 2012 O-S-D ranking, Toshiba and ST fell to third and fourth, respectively, due to steep sales declines in CMOS image sensors and double-digit drops in discretes. Toshiba and ST had been the No. 1 and No. 2 suppliers in the O-S-D marketplace since the middle of the last decade.

Suppliers of high-brightness LEDs generally moved higher in the overall O-S-D ranking in 2012 due to strong sales growth in lamp devices used for solid-state lighting systems. In addition to Samsung and Nichia moving up to the No. 1 and 2 positions in O-S-D, six other LED makers climbed higher in the top 30 ranking (Sharp, Osram, Philips, LG Innotek, Seoul Semiconductor and Toyoda Gosei). U.S.-based Cree, which makes LEDs and RF/microwave power transistors, was unchanged in the top 30 O-S-D ranking at 17th place in 2012.

Among the significant changes in the O-S-D supplier rankings was ST climbing to first place in the sensors/actuators market in 2012 from fourth in 2011. ST's sensor sales grew 19 per cent in 2012 to $791 million. Hewlett-Packard fell to fourth place in sensors/actuators last year from the top spot in 2011 due to a ten per cent decline in sales of HP's inkjet-printer actuators in 2012. In discrete semiconductors, Toshiba held its top position despite a 12 per cent drop in discretes sales in 2012.