IC industry to see 17.8% production increase: ITRI official

Tan Yu-hua, researcher with ITRI, made the prediction at a seminar hosted by the institute as well as the Industrial Technology Department of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

For this year, Taiwan makers of IC, or semiconductors, are expected to see a production decline of 8.1 percent, due to the global recession, he said. However, since the second quarter, a noticeable recovery has been seen in the industry, as manufacturers receive more orders, Tan said.

As such, the industry's production will increase by 17.8 percent next year, he said.

By sector, IC design rose 3.1 percent this year, despite the recession, Tan said. Made-to-order chipmaking, IC packaging and IC testing declined 8 percent, 10.1 percent and 9.7 percent, respectively, he added.

Another ITRI researcher, Lee Kuan-hua, lauded Taiwan IC design houses at the same event.

He said Taiwan IC design firms' proportion in the top 20 IC designers in the world has increased from 14.1 percent in 2001 to last year's 18.4 percent. Next year, he said Taiwan's IC design production value will grow 16.4 percent.

“There many reasons for this,” he said. “There is an increasing number of devices with medical and environmental applications. These devices need people to design their ICs.”

“Further, more cross-strait collaboration on IC design has been seen lately,” he added. “This will raise their production value even more.”

Globally, total IC production is expected to reach US220.1 billion by the end of the year, a decline of 11.5 percent from last year, Tan said.

Next year, global production value is expected to grow 12.2 percent, he said.

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