The Taiwanese chip industry is expected to experience anemic year-on-year growth of 0.9 percent in production value this year, primarily as demand dwindles amid trade uncertainty and decelerating smartphones sales, the Taiwan Semiconductor Industrial Association’s (TSIA) latest report said yesterday.
The chip industry as a whole is expected to see production value creep up to NT$2.64 trillion (US$85.73 billion) this year from NT$2.62 trillion last year, the association said, citing a forecast by the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院).
The latest growth forecast was trimmed from annual growth of 2 to 3 percent estimated previously, the institute said.
The IC industry covers chip design, manufacturing, packaging and testing, with the manufacturing segment accounting for more than 50 percent of the industry’s total production value.
The chip manufacturing sector is to suffer the brunt of the latest downturn as the sector is to post its first annual contraction since 2011 of 0.2 percent in production value to NT$1.48 trillion, the report said.
The chip manufacturing sector is comprised of the foundry and memorychip segments.
“We cut our projection to reflect the adverse impact from world trade uncertainty, and sliding sales of smartphones and PCs globally,” ITRI analyst Jerry Peng (彭茂榮) said by telephone. “Even foundry heavyweight Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) will be affected.”
TSMC last month forecast that its revenue this year would grow 1 to 3 percent year-on-year, but it remains to be seen if the goal can be achieved as the chipmaker has reduced its revenue forecast by US$550 million this quarter due to flawed materials.
The production value of the nation’s foundry segment is to grow by a mere 0.7 percent year-on-year to NT$1.29 trillion, slowing from annual growth of 6.4 percent last year, while the production value of the memorychip segment is to shrink 6.7 percent to NT$18.77 billion after strong growth of 24 percent last year, the institute said.
The production value of the nation’s chip designers is expected to grow 4.1 percent year-on-year, marking the second year of growth since a contraction of 5.5 percent in 2017.
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the nation’s largest designer of chips for smartphones, said last week that its revenue would be flat or grow slightly this year compared with NT$238.06 billion last year due to stagnant smartphone sales.
However, the nation’s chip industry is expected to outperform the global chip industry, Peng said.
“We are not pessimistic about the nation’s chip industry,” he said.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS