(Source: Taipei Journal)
According to a recent report by Industrial Technology Intelligence Services (IT IS) of Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), in 2001 business in Taiwan produced 40 "Top Three" products, of which 18 ranked first in the world, 14 ranked second, and eight ranked third.
The top products included integrated circuits, mask read-only memory, integrated-circuit packaging and laptop computers. New entrants on the list included liquid-crystal-display monitors, wireless local-area networks, asymmetric-digital subscriber-line modems, dynamic-random-access memory and electric bikes.
Although Taiwan ranked first in the integrated-circuit industry, production value dropped 35.7 percent from $9.45 billion in 2000 to $6 billion last year because of the global recession's effects on the semiconductor industry, which shrank by 32 percent. However, MOEA predicted that IC production in Taiwan would grow by 16.5 percent this year.
The global IC design industry declined by 21 percent in 2001. Taiwan production, however, saw growth of 5.9 percent, with market share rising from 20.7 percent in 2000 to 25.9 percent in 2001. Taiwan's Viatech Technologies Inc. and MediTek Inc. were ranked among the global top 10 for IC design companies. With growing demand for consumer electronics and internet communication chips, ITIS estimated that the IC design industry will grow by 26.6 percent this year.
ITIS also noted that since 1999, Taiwan has become the world's number one producer of laptop computers with market share of more than 50 percent in 2000.
In 2001, DRAM production on the island was worth only $1.9 billion„down 57 percent from 2000. Nonetheless, with Japan DRAM manufacturers retreating from the market because of massive losses, Taiwan became the world's third-largest producer.
