Pure-play foundries have seen order visibility for the third quarter of 2019 become blurred by the impact of the US trade ban on China's Huawei, according to industry sources.

Taiwan recorded manufacturing production index (2016 as base year) of 104.30 for April 2019, decreasing 0.74% sequentially but increasing 0.94% on year, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) on May 23.

Taiwan-based Spirox, which distributes packaging and testing equipment, has signed a new contract with National Instruments (NI) under which Spirox will sell NI's STS (semiconductor test system) facilities in the Greater China region.

TSMC has aleady started volume production of chips built using 7nm N7+ technology, the foundry's first process node with EUV lithography, according to the pure-play foundry.

TSMC continues fulfilling chip orders placed by Huawei and will maintain its supply to the China-based customer, according to the pure-play foundry, which also has reiterated its revenue forecast for 2019 of only slight growth.

Globalfoundries has reiterated its focus on providing differentiated foundry services on a contract basis, and intends to keep all its existing manufacturing facilities worldwide to support its core operations, according to the company.

Taiwan AOI (automated optical inspection) specialist Machvision has seen efforts of its Bethel Unicorn Incubator Center gradually pay off, with two out of four startups incubated planning IPO launches, according to company chairman Collin Wang.

Marvell has entered into definitive agreements to purchase Avera Semiconductor, the application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) business of Globalfoundries, according to the companies.

Mobile device testing and certification service company Sporton International is already engaged in conducting tests and certification for 5G sub-6GHz and mmWave smartphones, and expects demand for these devices to pick up substantially starting the second half of 2019.

In efforts to mitigate impacts of US trade sanctions against Huawei and tariff hikes on Chinese imports, the China government has instructed domestic enterprises to purchase more from local tech firms and source more ICs, materials and equipment from Taiwan supply chains, according to industry sourc...

Billings among North American manufacturers of semiconductor production equipment grew sequentially in April 2019 ending three consecutive months of sequential drops.

With the US trade sanctions likely to prove disastrous to Huawei, Taiwan semiconductor supply chain partners can hardly give clear-cut prospects for the third quarter of 2019 and beyond although they can maintain normal shipments to the China telecom equipment and smartphone giant in the second quarter,...

Huawei has been piling up inventory since around the end of 2018, according to industry sources in Taiwan. Inventory levels at the China-based vendor should be able to sustain its shipments until the end of 2019, the sources continued.

Taiwan received export orders totaling US$37.66 billion in value in April 2019, decreasing 2.4% sequentially and 3.7% on year, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).

China chipmaker HiSilicon is reportedly to sign with Taiwan IC supply chain partners capacity guarantee agreements valid through the second quarter of 2020, despite uncertainties arising from its parent company Huawei being banned from purchasing vital components from and selling telecom equipment...

Huawei has reportedly promised not to cut its orders with Taiwan's upstream and downstream supply chain partners and also inquired about the possibility of increasing their production capacity, a move in contrast to market speculation that Huawei could cut orders after being blacklisted by the Trump...

Taiwan's CMOS image sensor (CIS) packaging specialist Kingpak Technology is expected to see its second-quarter revenues fall only slightly on quarter as its average capacity utilization rate has gradually rebounded to a normal level in May after experiencing a significant drop in April, according to...

Intel replaced Samsung as the number one quarterly semiconductor supplier in the fourth quarter of 2018, after losing the lead spot to Samsung in the second quarter of 2017, according to IC Insights.

China-based pure-play foundries will see their combined production capacity grow at a 9.6% CAGR from 14.536 million 8-inch equivalent wafers in 2018 to 19.119 million units in 2021, according to Digitimes Research.

Unisoc's Ivy 510 5G modem chip has been validated for 5G NR sub-6 GHz signaling, and will be fabricated by TSMC on the 7nm node for official application in the starting year of 5G commercialization in 2019, according to Steve Chu, CEO of China-based fabless chipmaker under the Tsinghua Unigroup.

A Japan-based vendor reportedly is looking for a buyer for its automotive IGBT manufacturing lines from among makers in Taiwan and China, according to industry sources.

Backend house Orient Semiconductor Electronics (OSE) has seen its capacity utilization rate for flash memory products climb above 80% recently, according to industry sources.

After three consecutive years of growth, worldwide semiconductor revenues will decrease 7.2% to US$440 billion in 2019, according to IDC.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has reportedly grabbed orders for all the 5G modem chips that have been introduced by fabless chipmakers, such as Qualcomm's Snapdragon X50 and HiSilicon's Balong series.

China's largest telecom equipment maker Huawei and its chipmaking arm HiSilicon are ambitiously proceeding with their vertical and horizontal deployments in diverse chip solutions for smartphones and 5G devices, seeking to strengthen their self-sufficiency and outperform smartphone rivals amid the...