Sales generated by the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) in the first 10 months of the year hit a record NT$843.05 billion (US$30.28 billion), up 9.45 percent from NT$770.25 billion over the same period last year, the CTSP Bureau said.
The science park is home to many tech heavyweights from a wide range of sectors, including semiconductors, precision machinery, biotech, optoelectronics and renewable energy.
The park’s semiconductor firms posted NT$649.71 billion in combined sales over the 10-month period, up 4.68 percent from a year earlier and accounting for 77.07 percent of the park’s total sales, the bureau said last week.
Photo courtesy of the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau via CNA
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, operates a 12-inch wafer fab in the science park, producing chips made using the company’s advanced process technology.
The semiconductor industry has benefited from growing demand for emerging technologies, such as applications for 5G and artificial intelligence, high-performance computing devices and automotive electronics, the bureau said.
Optoelectronics firms posted NT$155.35 billion in combined sales, soaring 30.37 percent from a year earlier and making up 18.43 percent of its total sales, the bureau said.
The companies benefited from a booming stay-at-home economy that has led to increased demand for devices used in remote working and distance learning, the bureau said, adding that the commercial use of mini-LED technologies helped boost sales in the optoelectronics sector.
Precision machinery makers posted NT$24.64 billion in combined sales, up 23.95 percent from a year earlier and accounting for 2.92 percent of the park’s sales.
Biotech firms posted NT$6.36 billion in sales, up 16.94 percent from a year earlier, while computer and peripheral producers generated NT$3.97 billion in sales, up 51.66 percent year-on-year.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce