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Largest-ever SEMICON Taiwan expo to open Wednesday
 

09/05/2023 09:38 PMListen

 

Taipei, Sept.05 (CNA) SEMICON Taiwan 2023, which is scheduled to open on Wednesday and conclude Friday, is this year expanding to the second hall of Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center for the first time to accommodate more than 3,000 booths from 950 companies, with 13 special exhibitions and more than 20 country forums expected to be staged.

Terry Tsao (曹世綸), global chief marketing officer and Taiwan president of SEMI, told reporters at a pre-exhibition press conference that as the market value of the global semiconductor industry is expected to reach US$1 trillion in 2030, the exhibition is also expected to be bigger than ever this year, with two main themes for each hall - innovation and sustainability.

The innovation hall (TaiNEX1) will have sections featuring compound semiconductors, materials, heterogenous integration, optoelectronic semiconductors, testing, and the localization of semiconductor equipment and components. The sustainability hall (TaiNEXT2) will focus on smart manufacturing, semiconductor cybersecurity, human resource development and green manufacturing.

Tsao added that what is also special about this year's exhibition is that it will have 10 country sections, including those from Australia (New South Wales), the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, the Unite Kingdom, and the U.S.

Meanwhile, Tien Wu (吳田玉), CEO of IC packaging and testing service provider ASE Technology Holding Co and Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭), chairwoman of Taiwan-based silicon wafer supplier GlobalWafers Co, who were invited to the press conference to share their insights, talked about geopolitics as a major disrupting factor in the industry.

"Economy of scale and innovation are the semiconductor industry's two main drivers, each pushing the other and constituting a positive cycle, but geopolitics has disrupted this positive cycle, driving up costs and regionalizing the scale," said Wu, adding that the industry needs to further innovate and increase added values.

Agreeing with Wu on geopolitics, Hsu said, "now everybody is talking about resilience and national security [when discussing the semiconductor industry]; acquiring a small company is like buying NASA, while 20 years ago no one really felt that way."

The industry has been highly centralized at certain parts of the supply chain, with different countries having their own specializations, Hsu said, citing a 2022 McKinsey & Company report, using Taiwan as an example of taking a big part of global sales (76%) in terms of foundries and Asia making most silicon wafers. "But the U.S. also takes up a majority of the sales in IC design and intellectual property (IP)."

Right now, with geopolitical factors taken into consideration, that concentration will be dispersed, which could drive costs up, according to Hsu.

"Another reality we need to face today is decarbonization. Currently there are already 73 carbon pricing mechanisms at work around the world, a fact that is bound to alter how businesses operate," the chairwoman said. "Carbon [footprints] generated by transportation will force [companies] to de-scale, as we would want the supply chain to be just next to us."

"So what GlobalWafers Co is aiming for, and I believe many companies are doing the same, is to 'glocalize,' meaning to localize with a global strategy," Hsu said. "Over the past 20 years GlobalWafers Co had been making acquisitions to achieve complementarity, but now we have changed course to focus on 'organic growth,' meaning to increase capital expenditure to expand production and also build new factories to meet the needs of our customers."

(By Alison Hsiao)

 

Source, https://focustaiwan.tw/business/202309050027 

 

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