Infineon Technologies AG is the world market leader in power semiconductors for the twelfth consecutive time. After acquiring International Rectifier at the beginning of the year, Infineon's 19.2 percent market share now makes it the clear market leader. In comparison, both companies' market share in 2013 summed up to approximately 17.5 percent, according to the results of a study by the US market research institute IHS Inc. for 2014. Infineon's closest competitor lags behind with 7.0 percent. Energy-saving power semiconductors can be found in a wide variety of devices ranging from the kitchen microwave oven all the way to large-scale wind power turbines. IHS shows the world market for power semiconductors growing by 6.3 percent in 2014 to 16.2 billion US dollars.
"Through organic growth and the acquisition of International Rectifier we've made our leadership position for power semiconductors even stronger compared to the global competition," says Dr. Reinhard Ploss, CEO of Infineon Technologies AG. "Our leading technology expertise and our system understanding mean we will profit disproportionately from the forecasted growth." The IHS study predicts a growing demand for power semiconductors particularly in the automotive and industry business sectors through 2019.
A look at the sub-markets for IGBT modules, discrete IGBTs and MOSFETs shows how robust Infineon's position is: In these segments Infineon was the sole player to significantly increase market share. During the report year 2014 Infineon's MOSFET market share grew from 26.4 to 27.8 percent, while the second largest competitor reached 10.5 percent. Infineon grew its stake in the discrete IGBT market from 34.7 to 38.5 percent, with its nearest competitor trailing behind with 14.1 percent of the market. And as the second-ranked player in the IGBT module segment, Infineon raised its market share from 21.4 percent to 23.2 percent, narrowing the gap to the segment leader by slightly more than two to now only about three percentage points.
