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.
Photo: Bloomberg
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.
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
PERSONAL DATA: The implicated KMT members allegedly compiled their petitions by copying names from party lists without the consent of the people concerned Judicial authorities searched six locations yesterday and questioned six people, including one elderly Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member and five KMT Youth League associates, about alleged signature forgery and fraud relating to their recall efforts against two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators. After launching a probe into alleged signature forgery and related fraud in the KMT’s recall effort, prosecutors received a number of complaints, including about one petition that had 1,748 signatures of voters whose family members said they had already passed away, and also voters who said they did not approve the use of their name, Taipei Deputy Chief Prosecutor
UNDER ATTACK: Raymond Greene said there were 412 billion malicious threats in the Asia-Pacific region in the first half of 2023, with 55 percent targeting Taiwan Taiwan not only faces military intimidation from China, but is also on the front line of global cybersecurity threats, and it is taking action to counter those attacks, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. Speaking at the opening of this year’s Cybersec Expo in Taipei, the president assured foreign diplomats and exhibitors that Taiwan remained committed to strengthening its defense against cyberattacks and enhancing the resilience of its digital infrastructure. Lai referenced a report from the National Security Bureau (NSB) indicating that the Government Service Network faced an average of 2.4 million intrusion attempts daily last year, more than double the figure
COUNTERINTELLIGENCE TRAINING: The ministry said 87.5 percent of the apprehended Chinese agents were reported by service members they tried to lure into becoming spies Taiwanese organized crime, illegal money lenders, temples and civic groups are complicit in Beijing’s infiltration of the armed forces, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said in a report yesterday. Retired service members who had been turned to Beijing’s cause mainly relied on those channels to infiltrate the Taiwanese military, according to the report to be submitted to lawmakers ahead of tomorrow’s hearing on Chinese espionage in the military. Chinese intelligence typically used blackmail, Internet-based communications, bribery or debts to loan sharks to leverage active service personnel to do its bidding, it said. China’s main goals are to collect intelligence, and develop a