The market trends in Taiwan indicate new global development
By Dilin Anand
Monday, December 16, 2013: The 39th edition of the Taipei International Electronics Show (TAITRONICS), which concluded on October 11, 2013, highlighted several new trends and market opportunities, which could be indicative of new global developments. The top five trends are listed below.
No room for small IC testing vendors
Testing for IC packaging can help to check if the product is defective, both before and after packaging.
The business revenue of the five big IC (packaging) testing vendors accounts for 70 per cent of the total US$ 13.4 billion industry, so the possibility of small enterprises surviving in this industry is bleak. It is expected that only firms offering unique niche services will stay in this industry in the coming years.
TFT LCD panel industry is focusing on niche solutions
The traditional TFT LCD panel industry has entered a mature period. Typically, emerging industries have a higher sales growth, but upon reaching the mature industry phase, this growth peaks, resulting in stable earnings but little growth.
In order to keep the industry growing, the players in this industry are focusing on niche solutions and value-adds. In the race to enhance the added value of the TFT LCD product, new technologies like 3D function, 4K, 2K, and more precise and high-level panels have been introduced into the market.
PCB industry shifts attention to high-end products
The profit margins in the PCB industry have been impacted by the developments in the Chinese market, which has grown to 42.8 per cent of world production, according to the IPC World PCB Production report. The report also says that the world PCB industry grew by 1.7 per cent in 2012. In order to tackle this development, the Taiwan PCB industry has shifted its focus to high-end circuit products, such as buried-in passive devices, and fine critical dimension and 3D IC substrates. Focusing on these high growth areas helps the industry to pick up momentum in an otherwise low growth industry.
Connector industry focuses on niche applications
According to GII Research, the global connector market is largely settled, with 60 per cent of industrial connectors owned by 10 companies. This is probably due to the industry consolidation seen over the last decade. However, there is still a lot of room for players that undertake specialised manufacturing, targeting niche areas, where there is little competition but steady demand.
Some of the bigger changes affecting this industry are vendors focusing on new niche connector applications targeting green energy, medical electronics, and high-speed and high-frequency communication.
Bigger wafers is the trend
Wafer fabrication is a capital and technology-intensive industry. In order to improve throughput and reduce production costs of manufacturing wafers, the industry is moving towards producing bigger wafers. The specifications of wafers currently produced are 4, 5, 6, 8 and 12 inches (100, 125, 150, 200 and 300 mm), with 300 mm (12 inches) being considered the state-of-the-art. Wafers of 450 mm (18 inches) are expected to go into production by 2016.
Apart from this, chip design firms are going fabless, while fabless firms like Qualcomm, Broadcom and AMD are transferring IC manufacturing to specialised factories, of which Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) are the biggest beneficiaries.
Electronics Bazaar, South Asia’s No.1 Electronics B2B magazine
