Apple Inc added three Taiwanese manufacturers to its supplier list in the past fiscal year, while many others, such as iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), IC packaging and testing services provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) and contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), remained on the list.
On the list released for the year ending September last year, metal powder injection molding device maker Taiwan Powder Technologies Co (台耀科技), membrane touch switch supplier Ko Ja (Cayman) Co (科嘉) and LCD surface-mount technology production solutions provider Taiwan Surface Mounting Technology Corp (台灣表面黏著科技) were added.
As for Hon Hai, about 40 percent of its sales come from Apple. The manufacturer has production sites in China’s Guangdong, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Sichuan and Zhejiang provinces, Brazil’s Amasonas state and Sao Paulo, India’s Tamil Nadu state, the US states of California and Texas, and Vietnam’s Bac Giang Province on the Apple supplier list.
Photo: Reuters
Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), produces iPhones at its Zhengzhou complex in Henan, while its production compound in Shenzhen is involved in development and new product introduction for iPhones, analysts said.
ASE’s production sites in Kaohsiung, Taoyuan and Nantou County, China’s Jiangsu and Shanghai, Japan’s Yamagata Prefecture, South Korea’s Gyeonggi Province, Singapore and Vietnam’s Haiphong are on the Apple supplier list. ASE is the world’s largest IC packaging and testing provider.
TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, is believed to serve as the sole supplier of chips for iPhone production, as Apple is one of its largest clients.
Other Taiwanese manufacturers on the list included smartphone camera lens suppliers Largan Precision Co (大立光) and Genius Electronic Optical Co (玉晶光), power management solution provider Delta Electronics Inc (台達電子), metal casing supplier Catcher Technology Co (可成科技), Hon Hai’s resistor subsidiary Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co (正崴精密), and contract notebook computer makers Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦) and Inventec Corp (英業達).
Smaller Taiwanese iPhone assemblers Pegatron Corp (和碩) and Wistron Corp (緯創), the world’s third-largest multilayer ceramic capacitor maker, Yageo Corp (國巨), DRAM chip supplier Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), printed circuit board supplier Compeq Manufacturing Co (華通電腦) and Unimicron Technology Corp (欣興電子), one of Taiwan’s major suppliers of Ajinomoto build-up film, are also on the list.
Separately, iPhone exports from India exceeded US$1 billion in the five months since April, people familiar with the matter said, signaling that the South Asian nation is making progress with its bid to become a force in electronics manufacturing.
At the current rate, outbound shipments of India-made iPhones, mainly to Europe and the Middle East, are set to reach US$2.5 billion in the 12 months through March next year, the people said, asking not to be named as the data are not public.
That is almost double the US$1.3 billion worth of iPhones India exported in the year through March this year, the people said.
Apple’s key Taiwanese contract manufacturers Hon Hai, Wistron and Pegatron make iPhones at plants in Southern India. All three won manufacturing incentives under a federal government plan.
However, India is still far behind China. About 3 million iPhones were made in India last year, compared with 230 million in China, Bloomberg Intelligence estimates showed.
The devices exported from India from April to August comprise iPhone 11, 12 and 13 models, and exports of the new iPhone 14 line are to begin soon, the people said.
Beyond smartphones, India is drawing up plans to boost financial incentives for tablet and laptop makers, hoping to woo Apple to make MacBooks and iPads locally, and attract other brands.
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
Taiwan is open to joining a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) program if one is created, but on the condition that countries provide delivery even in a scenario where there is a conflict with China, an energy department official said yesterday. While Taiwan’s priority is to have enough LNG at home, the nation is open to exploring potential strategic reserves in other countries such as Japan or South Korea, Energy Administration Deputy Director-General Chen Chung-hsien (陳崇憲) said. While the LNG market does not have a global reserve for emergencies like that of oil, the concept has been raised a few times —
AI-FUELED DEMAND: The company has been benefiting from the skyrocketing prices for DRAM chips amid the AI frenzy, especially its core product — DDR4 DRAM chips DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday reported that its revenue for the first quarter surged 582.91 percent to NT$49.09 billion (US$1.54 billion) from NT$7.19 billion a year earlier, as the supply crunch caused chip price spikes. Last quarter’s figure is the highest on record. On a quarterly basis, revenue jumped 63.14 percent from NT$30.09 billion, the company said. In January, Nanya Technology expected global DRAM supply scarcity to continue through the first half of 2028, thanks to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) forecast prices of standard DRAM chips would rise between 58 percent and 63
RSS