Despite a sluggish global economy, some improvements have been seen in the global electronics industry, which bodes well for Taiwan, given its heavy reliance on electronics exports, Barclays said in a report.
There are signs that summer sales, particularly for mobile devices, will be especially brisk, Leong Wai Ho (梁偉豪), a senior regional economist with the British banking group, said in the report.
SMARTPHONE BOOM
The smartphone boom is in its early stages, he said, citing Ericsson, which expects smartphone subscriptions to increase from 1.2 billion last year to 4.5 billion by 2018, as network speeds improve with the development of long-term evolution (LTE) technology, a standard for wireless communication of high-speed data.
With major global smartphone brands set to launch products over the coming months, the effects have “cascaded down the supply chain to manufacturers of components and semiconductor memory chips,” Leong said.
CHIPMAKERS
Tight supply has already prompted Asian memory chipmakers to buy chips on the open market, pushing up the spot price per chip to US$1.83 as of Monday last week, from US$1.07 in January, Leong said.
Asian chipmakers are also investing in capital equipment, pushing the book-to-bill ratios of US semiconductor equipment firms above the levels seen since January, he added.
Taiwan and South Korea, whose electronics exports play an important role in their economies, will benefit from this situation, Barclays said.
Semiconductor shipments accounted for more than 20 percent of exports in Taiwan and 8 percent in South Korea, the report said.
Taiwanese and South Korean assets are likely to benefit from the combination of a moderate pickup in global growth, the strengthening of the electronics cycle and continued monetary support in a low-inflation environment, the report said.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip assembly and testing service provider, yesterday said it would boost equipment capital expenditure by up to 16 percent for this year to cope with strong customer demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Aside from AI, a growing demand for semiconductors used in the automotive and industrial sectors is to drive ASE’s capacity next year, the Kaohsiung-based company said. “We do see the disparity between AI and other general sectors, and that pretty much aligns the scenario in the first half of this year,” ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) told an
RSS