The production value of Taiwan’s integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services industry is expected to grow more than 10 percent year-on-year this year, with market analysts attributing the growth to booming global demand for mobile devices.
In a research report, the Industrial Economics & Knowledge Center (IEK) under the Industrial Technology Research Institute said output from the local IC packaging and testing services sector this year is expected to hit NT$454.5 billion (US$15.15 billion), up 10.6 percent from last year.
The report said IC packaging services are expected to account for 69.3 percent of the sector’s total production value this year, while IC testing services are likely to take the remaining 30.7 percent.
In the second quarter, output from the sector could total NT$114 billion, up more than 11 percent from the first quarter’s NT$102.5 billion, while third-quarter production is likely to grow 4 percent from a quarter earlier to NT$118.6 billion, the report showed.
The IEK said that, as Taiwan contributes about 55.2 percent of the global IC packaging and testing services industry, it is highly unlikely that any other nation can replace it as the world’s largest supplier in the near-term.
Last year, Taiwan’s Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (日月光) ranked as the world’s largest IC packaging and testing services supplier, ahead of US-based Amkor Technology Inc and Taiwan’s Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品), according to Gartner.
The IEK said that a total of 37 IC packaging and testing services providers are now operating in Taiwan. The top five firms account for about 70 percent of the local sector’s total sales, indicating business in the domestic IC packaging and testing business is heavily concentrated among these first-tier firms.
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