Texas Instruments: Leader in Industrial Electronics Market

According to iSuppli’s industrial electronics market tracking report, Texas Instruments expanded its leading position in the fast-growing industrial electronics semiconductor market last year. The company acquired National Semiconductor at the end of 2011, greatly increasing its market share.

In 2010 Texas Instruments was already the leader in the industrial electronics market. In 2011, it further consolidated its position. In 2011, the company’s industrial electronics revenue increased from US$1.8 billion last year to US$2.2 billion, a sharp increase of 24.9%. Last year, the market share of Texas Instruments rose from 6.4% in 2010 to 7.3%.

There are also nine other companies in the industrial electronics field, including the second-ranked Infineon in Germany and the third-ranking French-Italian company STMicroelectronics, as shown in Table 2. The 10 companies have a combined industrial electronics revenue of 12.9 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for about 42% of the total market of about 30.6 billion U.S. dollars.

The industrial electronics field covers a wide range of different applications and covers a wide range of fields including manufacturing and process automation, test and measurement, medical electronics, construction and house control, energy generation and distribution, and military and civil aviation. Semiconductors covered by industrial electronics applications include discrete components, optics, sensors and actuators, microcontrollers, and integrated circuits in analog, micro-component, logic, and storage.

Although the degree of concern is not as good as the more eye-catching market of consumer electronics, wireless or computers, the growth rate of industrial electronics was actually faster than the above-mentioned various fields. Actively adopting energy-saving processes in various industries has increased the demand for semiconductors that provide such functions. In fact, industrial electronics increased by 9.3% in 2011, which is the second fastest growing semiconductor market. After the automotive market, the overall semiconductor market grew by only 1.4%. It is expected that the industrial electronics market will increase by 7.7% in 2012, and the compound annual growth rate for 2011-2017 is expected to be 9.5%.

Texas Instruments' revenue growth last year was attributed to the acquisition of National Semiconductor at the end of the third quarter of 2011, which increased the profit of Texas Instruments' industrial electronics by US$446 million. Without this acquisition, the revenue growth of Texas Instruments will be very flat. Prior to the acquisition, National Semiconductor was the second-largest supplier of LED driver ICs, and this acquisition enhanced Texas Instruments’ dominance in this area.

Texas Instruments was also the number one supplier of manufacturing process automation and medical electronics last year. It is the second largest supplier in the field of energy generation and distribution, and the third largest supplier in the fields of test and measurement and construction and residential control. The company has enhanced general-purpose analog integrated circuit product lines such as amplifiers, voltage regulators, data converters and interfaces, especially after the acquisition of National Semiconductor.

Except for Renesas and NXP, most of the top 10 manufacturers have achieved strong growth

Infineon ranked second last year, with revenue from industrial electronics operating at $1.8 billion, an increase of 24.1% from $1.5 billion in 2010. The German company’s market share in the industrial electronics sector rose from 5.3% in 2010 to 6.0%. Infineon remains the number one supplier in the energy sector and ranks second in manufacturing automation. Some countries are increasingly turning to renewable energy such as solar energy and wind power. In the long term, Infineon will be able to increase its industrial electronics revenue.

Infineon’s strong growth pushed the second-ranked STMicroelectronics to third in 2011. In 2011, STMicroelectronics’ operating revenue was US$1.7 billion, an increase of only 4.4% from the US$1.6 billion in 2010, and its market share was 5.4%. STMicroelectronics is the number one supplier in the construction and residential control market, but ranks third in the manufacturing and automation and medical electronics markets.

Intel ranks fourth in the United States, operating income is 1.4 billion US dollars, the market share is 4.7%. ADI ranks fifth in the United States, operating income is 1.3 billion US dollars, the share is 4.4%. Intel is the number one supplier of micro components in the industrial market, and ADI ranks first in the test and measurement field.

The other top 10 suppliers ranked in descending order, followed by: Japan's Mitsubishi ranked sixth, operating income of 1.2 billion US dollars, an increase of 57.5%, the growth rate among the best in the market; the United States Maxim Integrated Products ranked seventh, operating income is US$871 million; Japan’s Renesas Electronics ranked eighth, with revenue of US$824 million; NXP Semiconductors, Netherlands, ranked ninth with operating revenue of US$770 million; US Xilinx was ranked 10th and operating income was US$754 million. Of the top 10 suppliers, only Renesas and NXP’s revenue declined.

Renesas lost money last year, not only because of weakening demand in Europe and China, but also due to the impact of Japan's March 2011 earthquake and floods in Thailand during the second half of last year. Renesas is in the factory in Thailand. NXP’s loss comes from its large-scale inventory corrections. The weaker-than-expected demand for microcontrollers in previous distribution channels led to excess inventory.