Samsung's chip sales expected to jump 15.6 pct this year.

 Samsung Electronics Co.'This will push up the company's global market share to 10.9 percent from 10.3 percent in 2013, which will easily place it second in the semiconductor hierarchy. Qualcomm's market share is expected to reach 5.5 percent with sales hitting $19.26 billion, with Micron to have a 4.6 percent share and $16.38 billion in sales.

Samsung Electronics Co.'s semiconductor sales are expected to jump 15.6 percent on-year in 2014, closing the gap with industry leader Intel Corp., a global market tracker said Sunday.

According to IHS Technology, Samsung chip sales are expected to reach a little over US$38.27 billion this year, up 15.6 percent from $33.11 billion tallied last year.

This will push up the company's global market share to 10.9 percent from 10.3 percent in 2013, which will easily place it second in the semiconductor hierarchy.

The U.S.-based research institute said Intel's chip sales should also rise 6.3 percent from the year before to $49.96 billion, but its global market share will dip to 14.2 percent from 14.6 percent tallied in 2013.

This translates into a gap of just 3.3 percentage points, down from 4.3 percentage points in 2013 and significantly smaller than 6.9 percentage points  in 2011.

IHS Technologies said Samsung's performance comes as worldwide demand for mobile devices have surged this year, which has fueled demand for mobile DRAMs, NAND flash memory and image sensors, where the South Korean company excels vis-a-vis rivals.

In comparison, Intel holds an edge in microprocessors used in personal computers. Sales of PCs have been on the rise, although outpaced by mobile devices.

After the two leaders, Qualcomm Inc. and Micron Inc. are expected to rank third and fourth, respectively, in term of sales this year, with SK hynix coming in fifth.

Qualcomm's market share is expected to reach 5.5 percent with sales hitting $19.26 billion, with Micron to have a 4.6 percent share and $16.38 billion in sales. SK hynix's market share can hit 4.5 percent as sales hover at $15.73 billion.

The market researcher then said this year worldwide semiconductor sales should reach $352.55 billion, a gain of 9.2 percent from the previous year.