Taiwan's information technology (IT) production, riding on global recovery, is expected to grow 19.6 percent year-on-year to reach US$1 billion this year, Chiang Fang-yun, research manager at the Market Information Center (市場情報中心), said in a report yesterday.
The best-selling products this year are notebook personal computers (PC), LCD (liquid crystal display) monitors, desktop PCs, motherboards and CRT (cathode ray tube) monitors, she said.
The production value of notebook PCs is expected to rise 24.5 percent from last year to hit US$20.9 billion.
Since 1997, Taiwan's IT industry has maintained double-digit growth except for 2001 when it dipped nine percent. It is expected to grow next year, with shipments of projectors estimated to grow 49.9 percent, and shipments of notebook PCs forecast to grow 21.2 percent.
Taiwan leads the world in the IT industry, attracting many foreign companies to place OEM (original equipment manufacturing) orders.
But due to rising production costs, more and more Taiwanese manufacturers have moved their production operations overseas.
Currently 70.1 percent of Taiwan's IT products are made in China, 15.6 percent in Taiwan and 14.3 in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe.
The trend of offshore production is expected to continue in the coming years. Most of the production will go to China, the world's largest consumer market.
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