According to the recently released reports from IMS Research on the markets for power discretes, power ICs and merchant power supplies, Infineon, Texas Instruments and Delta Electronics topped the rankings for each market respectively posting significant market share/ranking gains.

Infineon gained three places in the power discrete rankings in 2009, to become the world’s largest supplier with a share of more than 8%. Despite its revenues declining by 15%, Infineon’s competitors fared somewhat worse and the overall power discrete market dropped by about 21%.

Despite most power discrete suppliers taking a pummeling in 2009, IMS Research predicts the upside that 2010 presents will more than counteract the previous year’s fall. Total revenues are forecast to grow by just over 23% this year although it will not be until 2012 that the market recovers to its 2008 size of $11.7 billion. Highest revenue growth in 2010 is predicted for the computer & office, consumer and lighting market sectors and suppliers such as Fairchild, Toshiba, and International Rectifier that are heavily involved in these may see strongest recovery this year.

Like power discretes, the power IC market also fell in 2009, but ‘only’ by 14% and was still worth more than $10 billion.  Texas Instruments extended its lead in the market with a 10.5% share – nearly 3% more than second-placed Infineon, with almost all other suppliers recording double-digit revenue declines. One of the few suppliers to increase power IC revenues in 2009 was ac-dc regulator market leader, Power Integrations, whose revenues grew by around 7% - this was quite impressive given the extremely turbulent market conditions.

With many suppliers reporting extremely high demand in their 2010 Q1 and Q2 results, it is perhaps not too much of surprise that IMS Research projects a very robust recovery for the power IC market in 2010, growing some 25% as end-application demand returns and the supply chain gets fully restocked.

The merchant power supply market (including both ac-dc & dc-dc) was again dominated by Delta Electronics in 2009 for the seventh consecutive year, with an estimated share 16% (slightly down from the previous year). The merchant power supply market, which peaked at close to $20 billion in 2008, shrank by nearly a quarter in 2009. Like all other power component markets, a strong recovery is inevitable this year and double-digit growth can be expected.

These findings, amongst many others including market sizings, trends, shares and forecasts can be found in three dedicated IMS Research reports. For more information please contact us.

Provided by Ash Sharma, Research Director for IMS Research’s Power & Energy Group

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