Electric vehicles have strong potential in the Indian market. But not everyone in the South Asian country is convinced that a market where about 22 out of 1,000 people own a vehicle is ready for the EV revolution yet, according to DIGITIMES' correspondent in India. In India's mobile telecom market, intense price competition has drastically changed its landscape, with the top-3 carriers dominating over 90% of the market. In the semiconductor sector, AMD is expected to be the first adopt TSMC's SoIC technology fot its HPC chips.
International IDMs are set to raise quotes for automotive MCUs in 2022, and their backend partners in Taiwan are all expected to sustain robust backend momentum through 2022-2023 due to long-term capacity consumption commitments by the IDMs, according to industry sources.
Malaysia's chip shortages are expected to persist longer even after lockdown were lifted, while Indonesia is looking to start producing electric vehicle (EV) in 2023-24.
High-tech supply chains are encountering the availabilities of different chips that are in varying degrees. Chips such as display driver ICs (DDI) are no longer in tight supply, prompting suppliers of such chips to cut back wafer starts at foundries, according to industry sources.
TSMC's newly-developed system-on-integrated-chips (SoIC) technology will be first adopted for AMD's multiple high-performance computing (HPC) chip series, according to industry sources.
The Hsinchu Science Park (HSP), Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) and Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP) generated combined revenues of NT$2,370.575 billion (US$84.89 billion) in January-August 2021, growing 24.53% on year, according to Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST).
Micron is stepping up expansions of its production capacity, with plans to install EUV tools at its Taiwan fabs in 2024. In China, smartphone shipments to the domestic market slipped 5.4% in September, with local brands accounting for over 90% of the shipments. And supply side issues, such as component shortages, may hinder 5G smartphone shipment growth globally in 2022.
China's Geely Automobile Holdings is reportedly mulling in-house development and production of chipsets for its own vehicles as it has newly expanded its registered businesses to include IC chips manufacturing as well EV battery and electrical motor production, according to industry sources.
September billings among North American manufacturers of semiconductor production equipment increased by a slight 1.7% sequentially to US$3.72 billion, according to SEMI.
China's National Semiconductor Industry Investment Fund (aka the Big Fund) continues to pour money into China's domestic fab toolmakers, looking to rev up the development of China's homegrown semiconductor equipment sector.
The supply of handset-use power management ICs remains severely tight, prompting the chip suppliers to transition to 12-inch wafer manufacturing, according to industry sources.
Automotive IDMs have already told their clients that their chip prices will go up by 10-20% starting 2022 amid rising compoents and materaisls costs. Foundry quotes have been rising, but they are expected to increase less sharply next year with near-term demand for IC components to remain robust. Foundry houses' race to advance process technologies is promising strong growth for EUV tool vendor ASML.
MediaTek will enter volume shipments of its new-generation 5G modem based on the latest 3GPP 5G R16 standard in 2022, gearing up for a boom in demand for flagship 5G smartphones, according to the mobile SoC company.
Taiwan recorded exports totaling US$39.65 in September 2021, hitting a monthly record for the third consecutive time with growth of 0.3% sequentially and 29.2% year-on-year, while the corresponding imports reached US$33.21 billion, the second highest-ever monthly figure which slipped 8.0% sequentially but rose 40.4% year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Finance (MOF).
With Intel announcing plans to adopt ASML's high-NA EUV machines in its post-nanometer process technology that is expected to be ready for production by 2025, ASML has disclosed it is developing a next-generation EUV platform that increases the numerical aperture from 0.33 to 0.55.
Taiwan-based IC design houses, particularly those engaged in consumer ICs, have come under increasing pressure to maintain their quotes for 2022 as customers are more reluctant to accept further price hikes, according to industry sources.
Automotive IDMs have notified their clients about 10-20% price hikes for their chips starting 2022 as they continue to face mounting costs for raw materials, according to industry sources.
Taiwan-based makers received export orders totaling US$62.90 billion in September 2021, the highest-ever monthly level with increases of 17.6% sequentially and 25.7% year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).
Samsung's new NAND flash production capacity is coming, which is likely to create oversupply and exacerbate price falls for the memory. Apple has been relyng on Taiwan-based ODMs for producing its Mac devices, but it reportedly is looking to outsource portions of the Mac production to Chinese makers. But Taiwan's IC substrate suppliers have reportedly entered Apple's supply chain for new Mac chips.
With PCB and IC substrate suppliers looking to expand capacity, related equipment suppliers will be busy fulfilling orders that will be ramping up substantially through 2022, according to industry sources.
Equipment makers including C Sun, Group UP Industrial, Symtek Automation Asia (SAA) and Taliang Technology have seen clear visibility of orders extend well into 2022, particularly those from IC substrate and HDI board makers in Taiwan and China aggressively expanding capacity with big capital expenditures, the sources said.
Samsung Electronics and Intel are both striving to win orders for Apple's in-house developed Mac processors, but industry sources believe TSMC will remain the sole supplier for the next-generation Mac series.
Taiwan-based IC substrate suppliers, such as Unimicron Technology, have reportedly cut into the supply chain for Apple's custom-built silicon powering the next generation Macs, and will have a chance to benefit the most from the new offerings among its component suppliers.
Global silicon wafer area shipments will register robust growth through 2024, when about 16 billion square inches are forecast to be shipped, according to SEMI.
