The nation will overtake the US to become the world's second-biggest microchip supplier this year, the Central News Agency (CNA) reported yesterday, citing a report by Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).
The nation will account for 18 percent of global semiconductors, behind Japan with 24 percent, the report said.
12-INCH WAFERS
The semiconductor sector has been boosted by the continuing expansion of plants producing 12-inch wafers in Taiwan, ITRI analyst Peng Kuo-chu (
Peng said that memory chip production and contract chipmaking had become the mainstay of the global semiconductor sector since 2000, with Taiwan and South Korea reporting the biggest output expansion in 12-inch wafers since then.
In the three months to December, the nation's semiconductor makers are forecast to churn out 595,000 12-inch wafers, 16 percent more than a year ago, Peng said.
Output of 12-inch wafers has grown more than 10 percent in the last five quarters, he said.
The US and South Korea are expected to tie for third place, with a 17 percent market share each.
PRODUCTIVE REGION
Boosted by output expansion from countries such as Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and China, semiconductor output in the Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan will account for 47 percent of the world's total, the report said.
The ITRI report came on the heels of a report by technology researcher Gartner that said major chip makers would scale back capital spending next year, citing a gloomy outlook for the sector.
Gartner cut next year's global spending outlook for chip equipment to US$44 billion -- a 4 percent drop from the forecast it made in July.
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
ELITE UNIT: President William Lai yesterday praised the National Police Agency’s Special Operations Group after watching it go through assault training and hostage rescue drills The US Navy regularly conducts global war games to develop deterrence strategies against a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, aimed at making the nation “a very difficult target to take,” US Acting Chief of Naval Operations James Kilby said on Wednesday. Testifying before the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Kilby said the navy has studied the issue extensively, including routine simulations at the Naval War College. The navy is focused on five key areas: long-range strike capabilities; countering China’s command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting; terminal ship defense; contested logistics; and nontraditional maritime denial tactics, Kilby
RSS