Backgrounder onTaiwan's ICT industry

TAIPEI, TAIWAN: Many of Taiwan’s information and communications technology (ICT) companies are moving up the global supply chain by building their own brands.

Taiwanese companies today account for about three-quarters of the world’s production of PCs and half of the world’s liquid-crystal displays (LCDs). In addition, Taiwan makes about a quarter of the world’s semiconductors and about a fifth of the world’s mobile phones.

With a population of only 23 million, Taiwan’s well-educated, industrious people have carved out a huge niche in the global ICT industry.

The close proximity of electronics companies in Taiwan has led to the formation of industrial clusters that offer clear cost and time-to-market advantages, making Taiwan an excellent one-stop shop for procurement, design support and rapid commercialization of product ideas. Now, many of Taiwan’s biggest brands are tapping this same local manufacturing expertise to offer consumers innovative products and better value.

Market research companies expect the consumer electronics industry to return to growth this year, and virtually all of Taiwan’s electronics industry segments making PCs, LCDs and chips rebounded strongly in the fourth quarter last year.

After a 6.7 percent drop in 2009, the global consumer electronics market is expected to achieve a mild recovery, according to iSuppli Corp. Revenue will expand by 1.6 percent partly because of improving sales of LCD TVs, digital set-top boxes and appliances, iSuppli said in a January report.

The Taiwan ICT industry has grown to a size that has resulted in substantial diversification, and many large companies have separated manufacturing units from branded operations in order to allow greater specialization in both of these areas.

One example is Acer Inc., which last year rose in the rankings to become the world’s second-largest PC maker by market share. Acer has spun off its production units into separate companies including Wistron Corporation. Wistron manufactures for a wide range of companies including some of the best-known brands in the notebook computer and e-book business.

Many other companies in Taiwan are taking the same direction.

ASUSTek Computer Inc., owner of the ASUS brand, has become familiar to many around the world as the creator of the netbook computer. ASUSTek has spun off its manufacturing operations into a separate company called Pegatron Corp.

Taiwan’s PC industry, which accounts for about three quarters of the world’s production, had a strong rebound from the global economic slump during the fourth quarter last year. Taiwan’s PC industry revenues in the fourth quarter of 2009 rose by 20 percent to NT$826.4 billion (US$25.8 billion) from NT$687.2 billion in the same period a year earlier, according to information that listed companies post to the Taiwan stock exchange.

D-Link Corp. and ZyXEL Communications Corp are among the world’s largest network equipment brands. D-Link several years ago spun off its manufacturing arm to become Alpha Networks Inc. and focused on building the D-Link brand.

Taiwan’s network equipment industry has also bounced back from the economic slump in 2009. During the fourth quarter of 2009, Taiwan’s network equipment industry had a 20 percent jump in revenues to NT$35.9 billion from NT$30 billion in the same period a year earlier, according to information the companies provided the Taiwan stock exchange.

To promote Taiwan’s industry, the government has made the development of branding the key task for raising the competitiveness of Taiwan’s economy. There are two ultimate goals of the Branding Taiwan programme. The first is integrating resources to assist the establishment of brands and create a favourable environment for development. The second is to aid Taiwan enterprises in brand development and increase the value of Taiwan’s international brands.

Taiwan companies are also among the world’s leaders in products that save energy and reduce carbon emissions. These include companies making light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and solar cells.

Taiwan has the world’s second largest LED industry with about a quarter of the world market. LEDs reduce energy consumption by emitting light from a chip rather than an incandescent filament in a light bulb or charged gases in a fluorescent light tube.

LEDs use about a tenth of the energy of an incandescent bulb and can last a decade or longer. They also produce almost no heat, thereby reducing fire potential. LEDs are poised to take a larger portion of the multi-billion dollar market away from light bulbs and tubes as the new technology becomes more mature and manufacturing costs fall.

Taiwan’s LED makers include Arima Optoelectronics Corp., Bright LED Electronics Corp., Epistar Corp., Everlight Electronic Co., Formosa Epitaxy, Genesis Photonics Inc., Harvatek, I-Chiun Precision, Ligitek, Opto Tech and Unity Opto Technology Co.

Likewise, solar cells, which generate electricity from sunlight, have become more important as nations around the world try to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels and cut carbon emissions.

Taiwan’s solar cell companies include Motech Industrial Inc., Gintech Energy Corp., E-Ton Solar Tech, Sino-American Silicon Products Inc. Sinonar Corp. and Green Energy Technology.