Taiwan’s semiconductor industry is forecast to edge up 0.1 percent to NT$2.62 trillion (US$85.59 billion) this year, dragged by a sharp correction in the memorychip sector and the US-China trade dispute, the Industrial Technology and Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) said yesterday.
While little changed from last year’s NT$2.61 trillion, the local industry would vastly outperform the global semiconductor industry, which is to contract 13.3 percent year-on-year, ITRI said, citing World Semiconductor Trade Statistics forecasts.
ITRI attributed the industry’s lackluster growth to the US-China trade dispute, which has affected global economic growth, and consumption of smartphones and other electronics.
The IMF last week cut its forecast for global GDP growth to an annual expansion of 3 percent this year, from the 3.2 percent it estimated in July, due to increasing fallout from the trade conflict.
On top of that, stagnant demand from cryptocurrency mining firms also deflated demand for advanced chips, ITRI said in a press release.
Taiwan’s chip manufacturing segment, the biggest contributor to the semiconductor industry, would see its production value shrink 2.1 percent year-on-year to NT$1.45 trillion, mainly due to a 26 percent fall in memorychip manufacturing, it said.
The memorychip sector’s weakness would offset a forecast 1.6 percent year-on-year growth from foundry companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the institute said.
The foundry sector, which accounts for about 90 percent of the manufacturing segment’s production value, has benefited from rising demand for 5G and artificial intelligence applications, it said.
Taiwanese chip designers, led by MediaTek Inc (聯發科), are also a rare beneficiary of the US-China dispute and are forecast to outperform the semiconductor industry.
Local chip designers are to see production value grow 4.6 percent to NT$671.1 billion from a year earlier, ITRI said.
Increasing demand for wireless smart earphones, smart speakers and application-specific ICs (ASIC) should also help fuel growth for chip designers, the institute said.
Taiwanese chip packagers and testers are to see production value grow at the slowest rate in three years, as demand slides due to global uncertainty and Chinese pricing competition, ITRI said.
Local chip testers and packagers are to see production value rise 0.5 percent to NT$495.6 billion, it said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last