Global semiconductor equipment suppliers are gearing up to grasp their best chance to sell equipment at the annual trade show in Taipei before the cyclical industry starts to dip in 2006, the event's organizer said yesterday.
Over 600 semiconductor equipment makers will showcase their latest products and technologies at 1,400 booths this year, said event organizer Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) in a statement released yesterday.
The three-day trade show, SEMICON Taiwan 2004, will open on Monday at the first and third Taipei World Trade Center exhibition halls. The show is open to the public between 10am and 5pm on the first two days, and between 10am and 4pm on the last day. Admission is free.
Last year, 587 companies from around the world participated in the trade fair, according to SE-MI's tally. Some 31,000 buyers and industry professionals visited the exposition last year, the organizer said.
"The outlook for growth is to be sustained next year, although not at levels as high as this year. SEMI members generally believe the peak of this market cycle will occur in the second quarter of 2005," said Stanley Myers, SEMI president and CEO.
Chipmakers, semiconductor testers and packagers are expected to purchase a total of US$36.2 billion worth of new equipment this year, up 60 percent from US$22.2 billion in 2003, according to a report released by SEMI in July.
In 2005, growth is expected to slow to 24 percent to total US$44.8 billion, according to the report.
Semiconductor equipment suppliers expect a roughly 5 percent reduction in sales in 2006 to US$42.62 billion before a recovery in 2007, when equipment spending will regain momentum by rising 13 percent to US$47.95 billion, according to SEMI statistics.
The forecast is largely in line with the semiconductor industry's five-year cycle as the next trough might happen in 2006, as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC,
TSMC, the world's No 1 contract chipmaker, plans to spend US$2.4 billion on new facilities this year. Chang told investors in July that capital expenditures for 2005 would be modestly above US$2.4 billion.
In terms of regions, China, led by chip startup Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (
Taiwan will come next, posting 140-percent growth in equipment spending to US$7.01 billion, according to SEMI's report.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
Clambering hand-over-hand, sweat dripping into his eyes, a durian laborer expertly slices a cumbersome fruit from a tree before tossing it down to land with a soft thump in his colleague’s waiting arms about 15m below. Among Thailand’s most famous and lucrative exports, the pungent “king of fruits” is as distinctive in its smell as its spiky green-brown carapace, and has been farmed in the kingdom for hundreds of years. However, a vicious heat wave engulfing Southeast Asia has resulted in smaller yields and spiraling costs, with growers and sellers increasingly panicked as global warming damages the industry. “This year is a crisis,”
HIGH-TECH: As leading-edge process technologies become more complicated, only a handful of players are able to provide design services, the company’s CEO said Artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) yesterday said that revenue would grow significantly again in 2026 after adding a major AI chip customer, reversing moderation amid a product transition next year. The Taipei-based application-specific IC (ASIC) designer reiterated its strong revenue growth forecast for this year and 2026 after its stock plummeted about 23 percent to NT$3,145 from a peak of NT$4,085 on March 6 amid growing competition. Alchip said it has built strong partnerships with cloud service providers (CSP), denying that it had lost orders to smaller competitors such as Faraday Technology Corp (智原). Faraday said it has secured