SK hynix moved up the global ranking of semiconductor suppliers with the largest sales improvement in the first quarter of 2017, showed a market researcher Thursday.

The South Korean memory chip giant rose to become the world’s third-largest chipmaker by first-quarter sales, moving up two notches from a year earlier, according to data provided by research firm IC Insights.

SK hynix raised $5.5 billion in sales for the first three months of the year, the data showed. 

The market researcher also noted SK hynix’s improvement from last year.

“Memory giant SK Hynix made the biggest move in the 1Q ranking as compared to the full-year 2016 ranking,” said Bill McClean, president of IC Insights. “Spurred by the recent surge in the DRAM and NAND flash markets, the company moved up two spots in the top-10 ranking.”

Micron also climbed up two spots to come in fourth.

Infineon, which is headquartered in Germany, was a new entrant into the top 10 ranking this year, at 10th place.

Korea’s top chipmaker Samsung Electronics came in second with $13.6 billion in sales, after US-based Intel with $14.2 billion. 

Although Intel held a slim 4 percent lead over Samsung for the No. 1 position in the first quarter, the researcher noted that Samsung is on pace to displace Intel as the world’s largest semiconductor supplier in the second quarter.

The top 10 semiconductor suppliers represented a combined 56 percent of the worldwide semiconductor market of $99.6 billion in the first quarter, the data showed.

“The second quarter is forecast to be the first ever quarterly semiconductor market to exceed $100 billion,” McClean said.

The researcher offered a prediction for further changes in the top 10 ranking throughout the year, considering expected mergers and acquisitions to follow in the market.

“As would be expected, given the possible acquisitions and mergers that could/will occur this year, as well as any new ones that may develop, the top 10 semiconductor ranking is likely to undergo some significant changes over the next few years as the semiconductor industry continues along its path to maturity,” he said.

US Qualcomm is in the process of incorporating Netherlands’ NXP, while several global chipmakers including SK hynix, Micron and Western Digital are racing to take over Toshiba’s NAND Flash unit.

By Song Su-hyun  (song@heraldcorp.com)