The production value of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry this year is expected to fall 12.7 percent from a year earlier to NT$4.22 trillion (US$132.1 billion), the Industrial Technology Research Institute’s (ITRI) Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center (IEK) forecast on Monday last week.
The IEK projection represented a downgrade from an earlier estimate of a 12.1 percent fall to NT$4.24 trillion issued in May, which the center said was due to weaker-than-expected global demand from end users resulting from high inflation and aggressive interest rate hikes worldwide.
The output value of the pure-play wafer foundry business, the largest segment of the semiconductor industry, is expected to fall 11.3 percent to NT$2.38 trillion, a downgrade from NT$2.43 trillion estimated in May, the report said.
Photo: AFP
The output value of memorychip suppliers is expected to fall 23.6 percent to NT$180 billion, the steepest decline in any of the major segments in the industry, while IC packaging and testing service providers are expected to see their production value fall by 18.5 percent and 13.0 percent to NT$379.7 billion and NT$190.3 billion respectively, the center projected.
IC designers’ output value is expected to drop 11.6 percent to about NT$1.09 trillion, it said.
The local semiconductor industry generated NT$1.01 trillion in output value in the second quarter this year, down 18.0 percent from a year earlier, but up 0.7 percent from a quarter earlier, the report said.
The production value of pure-play wafer foundry operators was NT$564.7 billion, down 13.3 percent from a year earlier and down 3.8 percent from a quarter earlier.
Memorychip suppliers had a production value of NT$42.8 billion in the second quarter, down 37.3 percent from a year earlier, but up 5.4 percent from a quarter earlier, while IC designers totaled NT$268.5 billion in output, down 22.2 percent year-on-year, but up 11.9 percent quarter-on-quarter.
The production value of IC packaging firms for the second quarter totaled NT$92.7 billion, down 19.4 percent from a year earlier and down 1.4 percent from a quarter earlier, while IC testing services generated NT$46.3 billion in output, down 19.5 percent from a year earlier and down 0.4 percent from a quarter earlier.
In the third quarter, the industry’s traditional peak season, the output of the local semiconductor industry is expected to grow 7.5 percent from the second quarter to NT$1.09 trillion, the IEK forecast.
Some IC designers, however, in particular in the display driver IC design business, appeared downbeat about the quarter and were unsure whether they would benefit from traditional peak-season effects, with Novatek Microelectronics Corp (聯詠科技) expecting its third-quarter revenue to fall 4-7 percent from the second quarter, while Himax Technologies Inc (奇景光電) said its third-quarter sales could stay little changed from the second quarter or fall by up to 7 percent.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
RSS