TAIPEI: The production value of the nation’s integrated circuit (IC) industry is expected to rise about 5 percent this quarter from a quarter earlier, with the IC testing segment likely to record the highest growth, the Industrial Technology Research Institute’s Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center (IEK) said.
The IEK said that output of the IC industry in the April-to-June period is expected to reach NT$570.5 billion (US$17.5 billion), up 4.9 percent from the previous quarter and up 2.6 percent from a year earlier.
In the second quarter, the IC testing segment could record a 6.6 percent sequential increase in production value, the highest growth among all IC segments, followed by the IC packaging segment, which is expected to see its output rise 5.5 percent, the IEK said.
The IC design segment is expected to record a 5.1 percent sequential increase in production value in the second quarter, ahead of the IC manufacturing segment, which could post a 4.4 percent increase in quarterly output, the IEK added.
In the first quarter, the production value of the IC industry fell 3.4 percent from the fourth quarter of last year to NT$544.1 billion.
Output in the first quarter dropped 4.6 percent from a year earlier, IEK data showed.
The IC manufacturing segment was the only sector in the semiconductor industry to post sequential output growth in the first quarter after posting NT$295.4 billion in production value, up 0.9 percent from a year earlier, the IEK said.
In the January-to-March period, the IC design segment’s output fell 9.7 percent from the previous quarter, while production values of IC packaging and testing segments dropped 4.8 percent and 7.3 percent respectively from the previous quarter, IEK data showed.
