The Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區) posted the highest sales growth among the nation’s three major science parks in the first eight months of the year, driven by high-end microchip development.
Sales generated at the Central Taiwan Science Park totaled NT$446.4 billion (US$14.41 billion) in the eight-month period, up 32.7 percent from a year earlier, data released on Monday last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed.
The increase resulted from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) using high-end technologies — a 10-nanometer process and the more advanced 7-nanometer process — to commercially produce chips, park director-general Chen Ming-huang (陳銘煌) said.
TSMC expects the 7-nanometer process to increasingly make up more of its product portfolio, so the park’s sales are expected to continue to grow, Chen said.
Micron Technology Corp’s efforts to add capacity to chip packaging and testing operations and AU Optronics Corp’s (友達光電) expansion of flat-panel production also contributed to the revenue growth, he said.
In the first eight months of the year, the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) generated NT$695.2 billion in revenue, up 6.6 percent annually and accounting for 41.8 percent of the three parks’ combined sales, while the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學園區) recorded NT$520 billion in revenue, down 10.9 percent, as some buyers shifted orders for chips made with the 16-nanometer process to the Central Taiwan Science Park, the DGBAS said.
From January to August, revenue from the three parks totaled NT$1.66 trillion, up 5.7 percent annually, with revenue from companies in the semiconductor industry accounting for NT$1.13 trillion, or 68 percent of the total, data showed.
The DGBAS said that 843 companies had registered at the three parks by the end of August, up 22 from a year earlier, with the Hsinchu Science Park having 507 registered firms — the highest among the parks — up 18 registrants from a year earlier.
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