Taiwan's III-V semiconductor players including foundry Win Semiconductors and epi-wafer supplier Visual Photonics Epitaxy (VPEC) have cut into the supply chains of major carmakers and China's EV vendors by providing ToF-based LiDAR components, and are poised to enjoy strong demand for automotive LiDAR applications, according to industry sources.

China-based handset brands, including Xiaomi, Oppo, Realme and Honor, reportedly have slashed their shipment goals further for 2021, having already lowered their targets earlier in May, according to industry sources.

Foxconn Technology Group (Hon Hai Precision Industry) will soon reopen its factory sites in Bac Giang, Vietnam that have been closed due to COVID-19.

Japan's major automotive PCB maker CMK has decided to suspend production at its plant in Thailand for one week after 10 employees were infected with COVID-19 virus, but Taiwan-based peers with manufacturing operations there do not expect transfer of orders from its clients, according to industry sources.

Apple is expected to unseat Samsung Electronics as the largest buyer of AMOLED displays for smartphones in 2021, as new iPhones for the year reportedly will all adopt flexible AMOLED screens, pushing up the penetration of such displays in iPhone devices to around 80%, according to industry sources.

Memory module houses have seen their sales driven by the mounting mining fever for new cryptocurrency Chia in the second quarter of 2021, but are unsure whether it is sustainable, according to industry sources.

Global supply chain restructuring that is being accelerated by the US-China trade war and the COVID-19 pandemic gears toward two directions in view of geopolitical factors: "China+1" - the business strategy to still tap the China market but diversify production to other countries to avoid punitive US tariffs on Chinese goods; and "China-free" - the initiative to drive self-sufficiency to counter China's dominance and protect national security.

Ever-rising prices for raw materials are heaping great pressure on business operations of China-based PCB makers, with smaller ones even turning hesitant to take orders lest they should suffer more losses, according to industry sources.

With COVID-19 resurging in northern Vietnam, the country's Bac Giang Province has announced to lock down four of its six industrial zones to prevent the spread of the disease, according to a report by Vietnamnet.

Touch module provider General Interface Solution (GIS) has expressed optimism about shipment momentum for 2021, driven by growing demand for ultrasonic fingerprint sensing modules.

TSMC and other Taiwan-based pure-play foundries intend to carry out their capacity expansion projects cautiously and progressively to avoid the risk of overcapacity.

Mitac Holdings is expanding its capex for 2021 to get the company ready for the next-phase of revenue growth, according to company president Billy Ho.

IKKA Holding, a Taiwan-based plastic component and module-design and manufacturing service company, has cut into the automotive supply chain in Japan, boosting its sales performance, according to company chairman Hu Hsiang-chi.

To counter the geopolitical challenge and reduce its dependence on the US, China is accelerating investment in next-generation enabling technologies. Against this backdrop, the country is well-positioned to lead in the emerging Internet of things (IoT) sector, as chip technology is one of the key enablers for IoT, according to GlobalData.

A total of 91.27 million 5G smartphones were shipped to the China market in the first four months of 2021, according to data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT).