Manufacturing momentum weak
Manufacturing activity remained slow for the 10th consecutive month in December last year, with the manufacturing composite index still indicating slow growth, a report released by the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) on Friday showed.
The institute said that the stagnation largely reflected a move by international buyers to put their orders on hold at a time when global crude oil and raw material prices have been in decline.
For the whole of last year, local manufacturing showed a weakening growth momentum as a plunge in global crude oil prices took a toll on Taiwan’s petrochemical exports, the institute said.
MediaTek still at No. 3
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), a major supplier of handset chips to Chinese brands, remained the world’s third-largest supplier of smartphone application processors in the third quarter last year, market research firm Strategy Analytics said in a report last week.
Qualcomm Inc maintained its lead in the smartphone applications processor (AP) market with a 51 percent revenue share in the third quarter, followed by Apple Inc and MediaTek with a 19 percent and 15 percent revenue share respectively, Strategy Analytics said.
Global smartphone AP market revenue grew 16 percent year-on-year to reach US$5.6 billion in the third quarter, the Boston-based research company said.
TSMC global capacity hits 10.3%
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is ranked fifth worldwide for 12-inch wafer production capacity, market information advisory firm IC Insights said.
In a research report, IC Insights said that TSMC had a 12-inch wafer capacity of 430,000 units a month as of the end of last year, accounting for 10.3 percent of the global total.
The world’s largest 12-inch wafer supplier was Samsung Electronics Co with a monthly capacity of 985,000 units, or 23.5 percent of the global total.
Miron Technology Inc came in second with 627,000 units per month, or 15 percent of the total, followed by Toshiba Corp and SK Hynix Inc with a monthly capacity of 525,000 units and 470,000 units respectively, IC Insights said.
Automotive-use LEDs growing
The LED industry has been gearing up to seek business opportunities in the automotive-use LED market, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a recent research note.
The Taipei-based market analyst firm said that the automotive-use LED market has generated an alternative sales source for local firms at a time when LED lighting suppliers are suffering from falling prices due to a supply glut in the global market.
TrendForce said that the compound annual growth rate of the automotive-use LED market could hit 9 percent in the period from last year to 2018, with global production of the automotive-use LED market reaching US$2.5 billion in 2018.
Biomedical sensor output rises
The biomedical sensor industry generated NT$20.7 billion (US$653 million) in output value last year, 1.1 percent higher than the previous year, Photonics Industry and Technology Development Association (PIDA,光電協進會) statistics showed.
The Taipei-based association attributed the growth to an increase of 8.2 percent in the production value of non-invasive biomedical sensors from NT$11 billion in 2013 to NT$11.9 billion last year.
Wearable devices such as bracelets and watches contributed greatly to the rise even as sales of invasive biomedical sensors dropped from NT$9.5 billion in 2013 to NT$8.9 billion last year.
Ministry to hold online fair
An online shopping fair coordinated by the Ministry of Economic Affairs is scheduled to open at the Nangang Software Park (南港軟體園區) tomorrow and run through Feb. 18, the last day of the Year of the Horse on the lunar calendar.
About 27 Internet and mobile shopping platforms are set to participate in the fair, including momoshop.com (富邦購物網), u-mall.com (森森購物網), Rakuten Ichiba Taiwan (台灣樂天市場) and Yahoo Auctions Taiwan (奇摩拍賣).
In addition, 14 baking stores and four e-commerce businesses that allow for payment and money transfers online will participate.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
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GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure
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