The nation’s integrated circuit (IC) industry’s production value is forecast to rise 15.4 percent to NT$5.12 trillion (US$163.1 billion) this year, the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association (TSIA) said yesterday.
The increase is expected to outpace the global semiconductor industry’s annual growth of 13.1 percent, the TSIA said in a report commissioned by the Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center of the Industrial Technology Research Institute.
Following inventory adjustments last year, the semiconductor industry should regain its growth momentum this year, driven by demand for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing, the association said.
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Global semiconductor sales are expected to total US$595.8 billion this year, it said.
Taiwan’s chipmaking industry would grow 16.6 percent to NT$3.1 trillion, with foundry, led by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), rising by a similar pace to NT$2.91 trillion, it said.
The IC design sector would see production value rise 14.6 percent to NT$1.26 trillion, while IC packaging is to surge 11 percent to NT$436.2 billion and IC testing is to grow 12.6 percent to NT$214.6 billion, the TSIA said.
In the fourth quarter of last year, global semiconductor sales totaled US$146 billion, up 8.4 percent quarter-on-quarter and 11.6 percent year-on-year, the association said, citing World Semiconductor Trade Statistics.
However, sales volume over the period slumped 5.8 percent sequentially and 11.5 percent annually to 223.4 billion units.
The average selling price was US$0.653, up 15 percent quarter-on-quarter and 26.1 percent year-on-year, it said.
Globally last year, semiconductor sales fell 8.2 percent year-on-year to US$526.8 billion, the TSIA said.
By country, sales dropped 5.3 percent in the US, 3.1 percent in Japan and 14 percent in China, but Europe bucked the trend, increasing 4 percent, it said.
In Taiwan last year, IC industry production value fell 10.2 percent to US$139.2 billion, the Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center said.
Using methodology from the US General Services Administration to quantify the contribution of the semiconductor industry to the nation’s economy, the TSIA found that it constituted 13.1 percent of GDP in 2022, or NT$2.98 trillion.
Compared with its contribution of NT$790 billion in 2012, the sector has contributed 3.75 times more over the past decade with an annual compound growth rate of 14.1 percent, the association said.
This shows that the nation’s semiconductor industry has transformed from a “technological follower to a leader,” creating economic value that is not easy to duplicate elsewhere, it added.
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