AT&S has disclosed plans to invest EUR1.7 billion (US$2.07 billion) to set up a new production base for ABF substrates in Southeast Asia to satisfy the needs of its major HPC chip clients.
Malaysia is where a number of Japan- and Taiwan-based passive component vendors operate their regional factory sites, and their production may be disrupted by an ongoing two-week nationwide lockdown there, posing a further impact to the already-tight supply of certain components, particularly aluminum capacitors, according to industry sources.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, investors in Thailand have turned their investment targets to enterprises in the stage of growth, resulting in a reduction in number of loans to startups in 2020 to 30 from 2019's 41, but the overall investment amount still went up from US$109 million in 2019 to US$364 million in 2020, according to a report by Techsauce.
Combined sales of Vietnam-based telecom operators experienced a decline of 13.6% to VND315.2 billion (US$13.55 million) in 2020, thanks to a saturation of the telecommunication market and pandemic-induced impacts, according to local reports in Vietnam.
Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology (JCET), the largest China-based provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT), has announced its takeover of Analog Devices' test facility in Singapore. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The COVID-19 pandemic has undersocred the world's over-reliance on China's manufacturing capacity, and accelerated the diversification of the global supply chain, with many firms seeking to building or already building more manufacturing plants in South East Asia. Such a "China+" production diversification strategy presents the nultinational corporations (MNC) with plenty of new opportunities and challenges - in terms of operation, compliance and environment.
India's government plans to inject US$20 billion to promote the establishment of related LCD panel supply chains in the country, according to local media reports.
Globalization has changed the ways how supply chains are managed but has also increased risks. Southeast Asia is promising to be a major alternative for supply chains seeking to diversify their risks. But it will take time and a lot of investments for supply chains to reduce their reliance on production in China.
Taiwanese PCB makers saw their combined first-quarter 2021 output value at their plants in Taiwan and China surge 26.7% on year to NT$173.4 billion (US$6.11 billion), a record high for the same quarter, according to statistics released by Taiwan Printed Circuit Association (TPCA).
Delta Electronics (Thailand) is developing robots for precision assembly and hazardous environments, and for safety reasons, the company's automation development is mainly heading toward the directions of reducing malfunctioning and waste of materials, and improving production efficiency, according to company president Jackie Chang.
Samsung Electronics and Chinese handset brands, including Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo, all plan to launch foldable smartphones in the third quarter, heating competition in the segment, according to industry sources.
Revenues generated from Vietnam's mobile e-commerce industry are expected to reach US$7 billion in 2021 revenues and will surpass those of the desktop e-commerce sector in 2022, according to data from Vietnam-based mobile platform provider Appota.
The US and China have been clearly in a standoff, sparring over tariffs and technologies. This has resulted in supply chain reshuffle for some industries. US president Joe Biden signed an executive order on February 24, 2021 mandating a review of critical product supply chains in the US with the aim of bringing manufacturing back the US and rebuilding localized supply chains. Taiwan-based manufacturers caught between the two giants may not afford to choose sides, but they can still find room for survival.
China-based LCD panel makers have continued to ramp up capacity at their existing 8.6G and 10.5G fabs although most of them have said they would not establish new LCD panel fabs.
