Taiwan to be global top two for investment in semiconductor facilities

　According to the market estimation, the output value of the semiconductor industry will grow over 20% and over 70% of the capacity is supplied by Asia.  The investment of Taiwan enterprises in 12-inch fab and 0.13 micrometer advanced process technology will subsequently increase.  The facility industry estimates that the amount of Taiwan’s investment in facilities for production of semiconductors in 2004 will exceed Japan and leap to the global top two. However, most of Taiwan’s facilities for production of semiconductors are supplied by manufacturers in USA, Japan and Europe, and the rate of self-supporting doesn’t reach 10%, even lower than Korea. Obviously, Taiwan has to work harder in respect of development of semiconductor facilities.

  Year 2001 was the greatest period of recession for semiconductors and the output value decreased to US$28 billion. In 2002, the output value even dropped to US$19 billion. Up to Oct 2002, US Intel has made the most amount of investment, i.e. US$4.7 billion, and TSMC has invested US$1.65 billion, ranked the 2nd , among global manufacturers of semiconductors.