Coronavirus may dent Samsung’s global foundry market share in Q1

The coronavirus pandemic is causing havoc for all industries across the globe so it wouldn’t be surprising to see Samsung taking a hit because of it as well. The company has already had to shut down a smartphone factory in South Korea multiple times due to confirmed infection cases.

A new report predicts that Samsung’s market share in the global foundry industry is going to drop in the first quarter of this year compared to the last quarter of 2019. This prediction covers the January-March 2020 period for Samsung’s foundry business.

Samsung’s foundry businesses faces headwinds

Industry tracker TrendForce reports that Samsung’s foundry business logged an estimated 15.9 percent market share in the first quarter of this year, with revenues of $2.9 billion, in the quarter ending March 2020. If the estimate is accurate, Samsung’s global foundry market share will be down almost two percentage points compared to the preceding quarter.

“The pandemic has made a serious impact on South Korea, whose domestic market demand may be diminished as a result,” the report says, adding that “This is projected to affect Samsung’s 2020 revenue performance.” Samsung also revised its own business expectations for the year, acknowledging that its main operations will be affected by the global outbreak.

Samsung has been extremely focused on expanding its foundry business over the past few years. The company sees it as a growth driver for the future and it has been able to bring some key new clients onboard. Samsung is making PC CPUs for Intel in addition to making AI chips for China’s Baidu.