The production value of the local integrated circuit sector is expected to grow almost 6 percent in 2018 from the previous year on the back of continued solid demand, the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association (TSIA) said Tuesday.

It forecast that the output of the local IC sector will increase by an annual 5.8 percent to NT$2.6 trillion (US$88.44 billion) this year, with the IC design segment giving the strongest performance of 6.6 percent growth.

In the IC manufacturing segment, the annual growth in output is expected to be 5.9 percent in 2018, while the IC packaging and testing segments are likely to show 4.5 percent and 4.2 percent growth, respectively, the TSIA said.

In 2017, Taiwan's semiconductor sector posted NT$2.46 trillion in production value, up 0.5 percent from a year earlier and well below the 21.6 percent increase in the global IC industry, which was boosted largely by a soaring memory chip sector.

The TSIA said Taiwan's memory chip industry is relatively small, which is why the IC sector lagged behind the global growth last year.

In addition, the strengthening of the Taiwan dollar against the U.S. dollar also eroded the competitiveness of Taiwan's IC business and affected its output growth in 2017, the TSIA said.

By: DocMemory
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