The Week In Review: Manufacturing

German laser giant Trumpf is spending more than 70 million euros ($76.9 million) to build a new facility for its laser amplifier technology in EUV lithography applications. Trumpf has nothing to do with the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. But rather Trumpf is a German-based supplier of machine tools, lasers and electronics for industrial applications. Meanwhile, Trumpf’s new building will be used primarily by the company’s subsidiary, Tumpf Lasersystems. It develops laser amplifiers and related components for EUV power sources.

In case you missed it, KLA-Tencor’s CEO and CFO provided an update on the company at Semicon. So did Applied Materials and Lam Research. Applied Materials and Lam Research management spoke at separate events.

The global smartphone applications processor (AP) market registered a 20% year-over-year growth to reach $5.3 billion in Q1 2015, according to Strategy Analytics. Based on research from Strategy Analytics, Qualcomm, Apple, MediaTek, Samsung LSI and Spreadtrum grabbed the top-five revenue spots in the global smartphone AP market in Q1 2015. Qualcomm led the smartphone AP market with 47% revenue share, followed by Apple with 16% revenue share and MediaTek with 15% revenue share. Stuart Robinson, an analyst, said: “Strategy Analytics estimates that HiSilicon, Intel and Samsung LSI all registered a triple-digit year-over-year shipment growth in the smartphone AP market in Q1 2015. Samsung LSI, in particular, capitalized on a strong demand for its 14nm-based Exynos chips, which are featured in Samsung Mobile’s Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphones.”

In contrast, the global tablet applications processor (AP) market declined 6% year-over-year to reach $733 million in Q1 2015, according to Strategy Analytics. Based on research from Strategy Analytics, Apple, Qualcomm, Intel, MediaTek and Samsung LSI captured the top-five revenue share rankings in the tablet AP market in Q1 2015. Apple led the tablet AP market with 28% revenue share, followed by Qualcomm with 19% revenue share and Intel with 16% revenue share.

Qualcomm is cutting jobs amid a massive restructuring plan. The company’s results were lower than expected.

SK Hynix increased its 2015 capex from about $4.8 billion to over $5.2 billion, according to W.R. Hambrecht + Co./Summit Research. The company is also ramping up 3D NAND.

Rohm has completed the acquisition of Powervation, a power IC company, for about $70 million in cash.

According to IDC, vendors shipped a total of 337.2 million smartphones worldwide in the second quarter of 2015, up 11.6% from the 302.1 million units in 2Q ‘14. The 2Q ‘15 shipment volume represents the second highest quarterly total on record. In the worldwide mobile phone market (inclusive of smartphones), vendors shipped 464.6 million units, down 0.4% from the 466.3 million units shipped 2Q ‘14.

According to Strategy Analytics, global smartphone sales are forecasted to grow from 1.5 billion units in 2015 to a record 1.7 billion by 2017. China, India and United States are the big three countries driving smartphone growth worldwide. India will soon overtake the United States to become the world’s second largest smartphone market by 2017, selling an impressive 174 million units.