Taipei Feb. 15 (CNA) In a report published Wednesday, the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) estimated that the production value of Taiwan's semiconductor industry this year will drop by 5.6 percent, with IC design the worst-performing segment.
The report was compiled by ITRI's Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center under the commission of the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association.
In the report, the center predicted that the global production value for semiconductors this year will likely weaken by 4.1 percent, while Taiwan's domestic production value of semiconductors will drop by 5.6 percent, decreasing to a value of NT$4.56 trillion (US$150.5 billion).
The decrease will follow Taiwan's positive production value observed last year, where a growth of 18.5 percent brought the nation's production value of semiconductors to NT$4.837 trillion, the ITRI said.
The center went on to explained that the decrease has been projected after observing the industry's global decline in the latter half of 2022, which limited global growth of the industry to just 3.2 percent overall for the whole year.
The drop has also been projected concerning the current state of the global economy, the demand for semiconductors from end users at a low and overstocking of the supply chain, the center added.
Last year's numbers indicated that domestic IC manufacturing saw the most robust growth at 31 percent, while IC design saw the weakest growth at 1.4 percent.
Meanwhile, Taiwan's IC testing grew 7.7 percent last year while IC packaging grew 7 percent.
Considering the numbers, the center said Taiwan's IC design will continue to perform the weakest with a drop of 12.3 percent.
Domestic IC manufacturing, on the other hand, will decrease by 3.4 percent, while IC testing will fall by 2.6 percent, and IC packaging by 3.4 percent.
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