The annual output of Taiwan’s integrated circuit (IC) sector is expected to grow 6.5 percent this year on the back of rising demand for smartphones, Ultrabook computers and tablet devices, according to an industry report released yesterday.
The production value of the local IC sector will reach about NT$1.657 trillion (US$56.1 billion) this year, compared with NT$1.556 trillion last year, the Industry and Technology Intelligence Service (ITIS) report said.
The research institute said the output of the local IC design segment is expected to rise 7 percent this year to NT$412.6 billion, while that of the IC manufacturing segment is expected to grow 5.7 percent to NT$824.6 billion.
The IC manufacturing sector would also benefit from a stabilizing DRAM chip business, according to the report.
The annual output of the local IC packaging business is estimated to rise 7.6 percent to NT$290.0 billion this year, while that of testing services will grow 7.4 percent to NT$129.7 billion, it said.
However, in the first quarter of this year, the output of the local IC sector is likely to show a 3 percent quarter-on-quarter drop to NT$358.3 billion, led by declines of 6.4 percent and 6.5 percent in the output of the IC packaging and testing service segments to NT$61.5 billion and NT$27.5 billion respectively, according to ITIS.
Meanwhile, the IC manufacturing segment’s output is expected to fall 0.2 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$179.9 billion and that of the IC design business may fall 5.5 percent to NT$89.4 billion, it said.
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