Local car makers see decline
The Taiwan Industrial Economics and Knowledge Research Center (IEK) yesterday forecast that the revenue from completed cars manufactured in the second quarter of this year will decrease by 18 percent to NT$35.92 billion (US$1.24 billion) compared with the first quarter. The group cited recession and domestic oil and car price increases for the downturn.
Overall, domestic manufacturers will produce 326,000 cars this year, down 5 percent from 343,000 units last year, while total revenue will reach about NT$178.1 billion, according to the Industry and Technology Intelligence Services’ (ITIS) research center.
In the first three months of this year, Taiwan produced 82,000 completed cars, down 5.7 percent year-on-year and down 12.8 percent quarter-on-quarter, the ITIS said.
Boost projected for IC sector
Taiwan’s integrated circuit (IC) industry is expected to see a significant increase in its output value in the second quarter, driven by strong sales of smartphones, robust demand for LCD TVs and the recovery of the semiconductor industry, according to a report that was released yesterday.
Total output is projected to reach NT$411.5 billion, up 14.3 percent from the first quarter, said the report compiled by ITIS.
Of the IC industry’s four main sub-sectors, IC manufacturing will grow the most, with revenue set to rise 16.3 percent to NT$210.3 billion, the report predicted.
IC design output is expected to grow 12.5 percent to NT$100.7 billion, IC packaging output should grow 12.1 percent to NT$69.5 billion and IC testing value is expected to gain 11.9 percent to NT$31 billion, the report indicated.
In the first quarter, the IC industry’s revenue dropped by 3.1 percent from the previous quarter to NT$360.1 billion because of the low season effect.
IC manufacturing saw its output fall 0.6 percent to NT$180.9 billion, and IC design revenue was down 5.4 percent to NT$89.5 billion.
IC packaging output declined 5.6 percent to NT$62 billion, and IC testing output lost 5.8 percent to NT$27.7 billion, according to the report.
Taiwan, Netherlands sign deal
The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) signed a memorandum of understanding with the Energy Research Center of the Netherlands (ECN) yesterday to cooperate on green energy research.
The two institutes will collaborate on energy research and personnel exchanges, according to the ITRI.
The Netherlands is one of the world’s most advanced countries in terms of energy research, and the ECN is the largest energy research center in the Netherlands, the ITRI said.
The ECN conducts research into wind power, solar energy, biofuel, fuel cells and energy efficiency and is known for its role in merging energy knowledge with market trends, its Web site says.
Share dumping hits NT value
The New Taiwan dollar fell against the US dollar yesterday, declining NT$0.121 to close at NT$29.635 as foreign institutional investors kept dumping local shares while moving funds out of Taiwan amid rising concerns over the eurozone debt crisis, dealers said.
On the local foreign exchange market, foreign banks stood on the “sell” side, putting downward pressure on NT dollar, as foreign institutional investors were reluctant to take risks in the domestic stock market, they said.
Turnover totaled US$1.48 billion during the trading session.
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
DAMAGE REPORT: Global central banks are assessing war-driven inflation risks as the law of unintended consequences careens around the world, spiking oil prices Central banks from Washington to London and from Jakarta to Taipei are about to make their first assessments of economic damage after more than two weeks of conflict between the US and Iran. Decisions this week encompassing every member of the G7 and eight of the world’s 10 most-traded currency jurisdictions are likely to confirm to investors that the specter of a new inflation shock is already worrying enough to prompt heightened caution. The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to do exactly what everyone anticipated weeks ahead of its March 17-18 policy gathering: hold rates steady. The narrative surrounding that
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) share of the global foundry market rose to almost 70 percent last year amid booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI), market information advisory firm TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Thursday. The contract chipmaker posted US$122.54 billion in revenue, up 36.1 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 69.9 percent of the global market, TrendForce said. Its share was up from 64.4 percent in 2024, it said. TSMC’s closest rival, Samsung Electronics, was a distant second, posting US$12.63 billion in sales, down 3.9 percent from a year earlier, for a 7.2 percent share of the global market. In the
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers. The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growth would be driven primarily by the Nvidia Corp GB300 server platform. Server shipments are expected to increase each quarter this year, with the second half likely to outperform the first half, it said. The AI server market is expected to broaden this year as more inference applications emerge, which would drive demand for system-on-chip, application-specific integrated circuits
RSS