It is predicted that Samsung Electronics will solidify its top position in the world's semiconductor industry this year by widening the gap with Intel in the U.S.
Meanwhile, SK Hynix recorded the highest sales growth among major semiconductor companies and entered the top three.
According to the IC Insights' 2018 Semiconductor Market Forecast Report, Samsung Electronics' sales this year are estimated to reach $83.2 billion, a 26% increase from last year's 65.8 billion dollars. Intel is expected to make $70.1 billion in sales, up 14 percent from a year earlier ($61.7 billion).
Samsung Electronics, which ranked No. 1 in the world last year due to the sales gap of about $4 billion, is increasing its gap with Intel, which is the second largest in the world, to more than $13 billion.
"Intel, which had been dominating the global semiconductor industry since 1993, gave up its seat to Samsung Electronics for the first time in the second quarter of last year. This year's sharp growth in the DRAM and NAND flash memory markets has widened the gap in sales between the two companies," said IC Insights in a report.
However, as Samsung Electronics' memory business portion has increased by 3 percentage points to 84 percent from last year, the one-side concentration phenomenon is getting worse, the report pointed out. The sales growth rates of memory and non-memory businesses for this year are estimated at 31% and 6% respectively.
SK Hynix will increase sales by 41 percent from last year to $37.7 billion this year, the highest sales growth rate among the top 15 semiconductor companies in the world, the report predicted.
