The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) yesterday raised its growth forecast for Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, expecting production value to expand about 19.4 percent to NT$4.88 trillion (US$164.24 billion) this year, primarily aided by stronger growth from foundry companies amid a chip crunch.
That means the output of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry would again outpace that of its global peers, which collectively are expected to grow 10.4 percent this year, ITRI said.
The institute three months ago estimated that the production value of the nation’s semiconductor industry would grow 17.7 percent annually to NT$4.81 trillion this year, compared with NT$4.08 trillion last year.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
The production value of the foundry sector, the biggest contributor to the industry, is expected to grow 28 percent to top NT$2.49 trillion this year, compared with an earlier estimate of 24 percent expansion, the institute said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest foundry service provider, yesterday posted record revenue of NT$172.56 billion for last month, surging 55 percent annually and up 0.3 percent monthly.
That brought TSMC’s revenue in the first four months of this year to NT$663.64 billion, soaring 40.1 percent from NT$473.73 billion in the same period last year.
Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電), which primarily makes display driver and power management ICs, reported revenue last month surged about 48 percent year-on-year to a record NT$7.33 billion, with cumulative revenue in the first four months jumping 54.14 percent to NT$28.04 billion.
Production value at chip designers, the second-biggest contributor to the nation’s semiconductor industry, are expected to climb 14 percent annually to NT$1.38 trillion this year, the institute said.
Handset chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) reported that revenue increased 43.89 percent annually to NT$52.63 billion last month, the second-largest monthly level in the firm’s history.
Revenue in the four-month period totaled NT$195.34 billion, up 35.08 percent year-on-year, the company said.
ITRI said that local chip testers’ production value would grow 9.6 percent annually to NT$222.5 billion this year, higher than its February estimate of an 8.4 percent rise to NT$220 billion.
However, memorychip makers’ production value would rise 7.6 percent to NT$309.8 billion this year, a downward revision from its February prediction of a 10.7 percent increase to NT$318.8 billion, it said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy