An upswing in the average selling price of integrated circuits is expected to boost the production value of the global semiconductor industry through 2021, a market advisory firm said on Thursday.
IC Insights said the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the average selling price of ICs is expected to be 1 percent for the period from last year to 2021, partly because few newcomers are to join the competition.
Citing its own research, the advisory firm said it does not anticipate any excessive investments in the business or delays in the production of advanced 18-inch wafers during that period, which means IC prices can be expected to remain stable. Although IC shipments may be affected by the weak global economy and some technical hurdles in the industry, rising product prices are expected to offset the impact and drive production output higher, IC Insights said.
The CAGR of the global IC industry’s production value is expected to reach 8 percent in the period from last year to 2021, higher than the 5.2 percent recorded in the period from 1996 to last year, the firm said.
It forecast that the CAGR of IC shipments in the period from last year to period will slow to 7 percent, from the 9.5 percent recorded from 1996 to last year.
The average selling price of ICs in the period from 1996 to last year fell by an average 4 percent annually, slowing the production value growth of the global semiconductor sector, the firm said.
It forecast that IC shipments in 2021 will rise to 380 billion units from 192.7 billion units last year, while the average selling price in 2021 is likely to reach US$1.51 (NT$44.54).
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Huawei Technologies Co’s (華為) latest smartphones carry a version of the advanced made-in-China processor it revealed last year, results from an independent analysis showed. This underscored the Chinese company’s ability to sustain production of the controversial chip. The Pura 70 series unveiled last week sports the Kirin 9010 processor, research firm TechInsights found during a teardown of the device. This is a newer version of the Kirin 9000s, made by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) for the Mate 60 Pro, which had alarmed officials in Washington who thought a 7-nanometer chip was beyond China’s capabilities. Huawei has enjoyed a resurgence since
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li