Renesas Reigns Among Automotive Semiconductor Makers

April 21, 2014

Patrick Ponticel

The 2013 ranking order of semiconductor makers did not change from the 2012 order.

Renesas remained king the automotive semiconductor race in 2013, with the company’s dominance in microcomponents and logic ICs (integrated circuits) helping it to hold a half-billion-dollar gap over the second-place competitor, Infineon. Rankings were released last week by IHS Technology. The market as a whole grew 5% over 2012. Although the IHS ranking shows Renesas experiencing a 14% decline in revenue for the year, the drop was entirely driven by a fluctuation in the exchange rate between the Japanese yen and the U.S. dollar. When measured in terms of yen, Renesas’ automotive semiconductor revenue actually rose by about 5%. “Renesas has built hegemony in automotive semiconductors based on its leadership position in major product categories within the market,” said Luca DeAmbroggi, Principal Analyst for automotive semiconductors at IHS. “The company in 2012 was the top supplier in the microcomponent and logic ICs categories with market share of 37 percent and 13 percent, respectively. Renesas is also ahead of the pack in the automotive infotainment domain with a market share of 11 percent.” Infineon maintained the No. 2 position on the strength of its leadership in the powertrain semiconductor segment. The company held a 15% share in the area thanks to its broad portfolio of powertrain chips.