Asia-Pacific forecast to increase ASIC marketshare

The European region is expected to increase its share, but only by 0.9 points, from 2004 to 2014. In contrast, America’s share of the ASIC market is forecast to drop about five percentage points.

Japan was the largest ASIC market from 2004 through 2009, but the continued movement of electronic system production from Japan to other low-cost Asia-Pacific regions enabled the Asia-Pacific region to surpass Japan and become the largest ASIC market in 2010. Asia-Pacific ceded its lead position back to Japan in 2011 - quite a feat considering the earthquake that struck Japan in March 2011 - but then regained its top spot the following year and has remained the largest regional market for ASIC devices since.

In 2013, the Asia-Pacific ASIC market gained almost four percentage points of marketshare as Japan’s ASIC market plunged 21%, a decline driven primarily by the very weak Japanese yen versus U.S. dollar exchange rate. Another 2.5 percentage point gain is forecast for the Asia-Pacific region in 2014, driving its share of the total ASIC market to over 40%.

Even with an expected 6% increase in 2014, the Japanese ASIC market is forecast to be 42% less than it was in 2004. Similarly, the 2014 Americas ASIC market is forecast to be 28% smaller than it was 10 years earlier in 2004. In contrast to the Americas and Japan ASIC markets, the 2014 Asia-Pacific ASIC market is expected to be 51% larger than what it was in 2004. While the European ASIC market is the smallest of the four major regions, its ASIC market is forecast to be only about 5% less in 2014 than it was in 2004.

In 2014, Japan is forecast to be the market leader for sales of Gate Arrays ($82bn (USD)) and Full-Custom ASICs ($1.5bn (USD)). The Asia-Pacific region is forecast to be the largest market for Standard Cells ($3.3bn (USD)) and PLDs ($2.3bn (USD)).  Asia-Pacific surpassed the Americas market in 2008 to become the largest consumer of MOS PLDs. Only ten years earlier, the Asia-Pacific region was the smallest consuming region for PLDs. The Asia-Pacific PLD market is expected to jump by 24% in 2014 and remain by far the largest PLD market through at least 2018.

By 2018, IC Insights forecasts the Asia-Pacific region will represent 45.5% of the total ASIC market, more than the combined shares of the Americas and Japan ASIC markets. Europe is forecast to hold only a 12.4% share of ASIC consumption in 2018, down 0.5 percentage points from its expected share in 2014.