Hitachi and Toshiba have stormed past Motorola and Texas Instruments in the world ranking of chip manufacturers, according to the 1986 report from Dataquest, consolidating Japan’s pre-eminence won by NEC last year. The top 10 suppliers, with revenues in millions of dollars, are as follows:
Rank Company Revenues %
1986 1985 1985 1986 Change
1 1 NEC 1,984 2,638 33.0
2 4 Hitachi 1,671 2,305 37.9
3 5 Toshiba 1,468 2,261 54.0
4 2 Motorola 1,830 2,025 10.7
5 3 Texas Instruments 1,742 1,820 4.5
6 6 Philips-Signetics 1,068 1,356 27.0
7 7 Fujitsu 1,020 1,310 28.4
8 10 Matsushita 906 1,233 36.1
9 11 Mitsubishi 642 1,177 83.3
10 8 Intel 1,020 991 -2.8
Not surprisingly, exchange rate fluctuations had a significant impact, and expressed in dollars, the world semiconductor market grew 26.1% in 1986: By this measure, Japanese producers fared well, Dataquest notes, chalking up approximately 40% growth in worldwide factory shipment. European producers had the next best record, with a 15 percent increase in factory shipments and North America fared worst with only 6.4%. A different situation emerges when factory shipments from thethree regions are expressed in local currencies, says Dataquest. By this measure, the North America still shows 6.4% growth but Japan grows only 0.2% and Europe sees a 7% decline. Japanese sales outside Japan, expressed in yen, fell only 8% in 1986 despite currency revaluations of 40% against the dollar and 20% against European currencies. This decline was offset by an increase in the Japanese producers’ share of their home market from 72.9% in 1985 to 75.5% in 1986, the report adds.
