IC industry expected to grow 39 percent

The output value of the nation's integrated-chip (IC) industry, including IC design and manufacturing, will probably grow to NT$496.4 billion (US$14.9 billion) in the first half of the year, a spokesman for the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) said yesterday.

Chen Wu-tung (陳梧桐), a senior researcher and manager at the ITRI's Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center, said the 39 percent growth over the year-earlier level will result from an encouraging economic revival around the world.

Chen the forecast based on the industry's first-quarter output value of NT$240.2 billion, a 42.4 percent expansion year-on-year.

He warned that rising oil prices and the threat of terrorist attacks will remain a factor in the world's economic development and thus the industry's, but he said that many Taiwanese companies still hold an optimistic outlook.

The institute forecast IC design output to rise 46.5 percent from a year ago to NT$122.1 billion, while IC manufacturing will grow 37.8 percent to NT$282.5 billion.

IC are expected to contribute NT$182.7 billion to that value, a 32.2 percent increase.

ITRI that the packaging sector will grow 28.8 percent to NT$67.1 billion and the testing sector will grow 45 percent to NT$24.7 billion.