The nation’s electrical engineering and machinery industry could consider Southeast Asia as a market for new demand, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) said last week.
Given the region’s stable economic growth, demand from Southeast Asian countries would be more favorable in the long term, TIER senior analyst Wang Chung-ching (王忠慶) told a seminar organized by Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (台灣證券交易所) on Wednesday.
As demand in Taiwan is unlikely to increase significantly in the near future, manufacturers need to seek new sales drivers in emerging markets while the government could help manufacturers find new buyers via existing channel networks, as many Taiwanese companies have operated in Southeast Asia for years, Wang said.
Taiwan’s exports of machinery equipment dropped 6.9 percent to US$19.4 billion last year from a year earlier, the fourth consecutive year of decline, data compiled by the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械工業同業公會) showed.
Shipments to China and the US, the top two markets for local machinery makers, declined by 12.7 percent and 0.6 percent year-on-year last year respectively, TAMI’s data showed.
China was the destination for about 26 percent of all Taiwanese machinery exports last year, followed by the US, with 17.9 percent, while Southeast Asia accounted for 16.7 percent or US$3.24 billion, the TAMI data showed.
“The machinery industry’s exports have been stagnant since 2011, mainly dragged down by the sluggish demand after the global financial crisis [2008 to 2009],” Wang said, adding that challenges also comes from the supply side.
Local manufacturers face a rising competition from their global peers, such as Germany and China, who have used new technologies to enhance their capabilities.
Germany, which initiated the idea of “Industry 4.0” in 2011, has extended its focus to the computerization of manufacturing process in all its industrial sectors, Wang said.
Foreign exchange fluctuation is another drag on Taiwan’s exports, he said.
The dramatic depreciation of China’s yuan against major global currencies significantly hurt the industry last year, he added.
Local manufacturers should boost their niches in the global market through product differentiation, he said.
“Most machinery companies only provide individual machines or components. They should try to develop total solutions for end-market customers,” he said.
To raise the competitiveness of the nation’s traditional industries, the Taiwan Machine Tool & Accessory Builders’ Association (台灣工具機暨零組件工業同業公會) has said that it is seeking to cooperate with companies in different fields, including the semiconductor industry, to differentiate their products from those of their rivals.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
RSS