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.
TRADE WAR: Tariffs should also apply to any goods that pass through the new Beijing-funded port in Chancay, Peru, an adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump said A veteran adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump is proposing that the 60 percent tariffs that Trump vowed to impose on Chinese goods also apply to goods from any country that pass through a new port that Beijing has built in Peru. The duties should apply to goods from China or countries in South America that pass through the new deep-water port Chancay, a town 60km north of Lima, said Mauricio Claver-Carone, an adviser to the Trump transition team who served as senior director for the western hemisphere on the White House National Security Council in his first administration. “Any product going
High above the sparkling surface of the Athens coastline, the cranes for building the 50-floor luxury tower centerpiece of Greece’s future “smart city” look out over the Saronic Gulf. At their feet, construction machinery stirs up dust. Its backers say the 8 billion euro (US$8.43 billion) project financed by private funds is a symbol of Greece’s renaissance after the years of financial stagnation that saw investors flee the country. However, critics see it more as a future “ghetto for the rich.” It is hard to imagine that 10km from the Acropolis, a new city “three times the size of Monaco”
STRUGGLING BUSINESS: South Korea’s biggest company and semiconductor manufacturer’s buyback fuels concerns that it could be missing out on the AI boom Samsung Electronics Co plans to buy back about 10 trillion won (US$7.2 billion) of its own stock over the next year, putting in motion one of the larger shareholder return programs in its history. South Korea’s biggest company would repurchase the stock in stages over the coming 12 months, it said in a regulatory filing on Friday. As a first step, it would buy back about 3 trillion won of paper starting today up until February next year, all of which it would cancel. The board would deliberate on how best to effect the remaining 7 trillion won of buybacks. The move
In a red box factory that stands out among the drab hills of the West Bank, Chat Cola’s employees race to quench Palestinians’ thirst for local products since the Gaza war erupted last year. With packaging reminiscent of Coca-Cola’s iconic red and white aluminum cans, Chat Cola has tapped into Palestinians’ desire to shun brands perceived as too supportive of Israel. “The demand for [Chat Cola] increased since the war began because of the boycott,” owner Fahed Arar said at the factory in the occupied West Bank town of Salfit. Julien, a restaurateur in the city of Ramallah further south,
RSS