In the third quarter of 2013, shipment value of the Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturing industry arrived at around US$8.8 billion, up 7.4% sequentially, due to new product rollouts of smartphones and tablets, together with the launch of Sony's and Microsoft's new game consoles in the fourth quarter.

For the Taiwanese foundry industry, customers' need for advanced IC contract manufacturing services have increased since the continuous growth in demand for smartphone and improvement on specifications has prompted IC design houses for handheld devices to adopt 28-nm process technology. Meanwhile, as Sony PS4 and Microsoft Xbox One, both adopted AMD APU and 28-nm process technology, hit the market in the fourth quarter, their global product deployment pushed upward the Taiwanese foundry industry's shipment value to around US$ 6.8 billion in the third quarter of 2013, up 17.0% year on year and 6.4% sequentially – given a higher base period in the second quarter.

Regarding the Taiwanese DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) industry, the lackluster demand for PCs had sent DRAM prices on the decline before August 2013. However, on September 4, a fire stroke Hynix's plant in Wuxi, China, which mainly manufactures PC DRAM. The accident reduced global PC DRAM supply by 10% to 15%, leading to a hike of DRAM prices. Consequently, the Taiwanese DRAM industry's shipment value increased 10.3% sequentially to stand at around US$1.7 billion in the third quarter of 2013, soaring 78.3% year on year.

Shipment Value of the Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Industry, 3Q 2011 – 1Q 2014

Source: MIC, January 2013

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Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC), based in Taipei, Taiwan, was founded in 1987. MIC is Taiwan's premier IT industry research and consulting firm providing intelligence, in-depth analysis, and strategic consulting services on global IT product and technology trends, focusing on markets and industries in Asia-Pacific. MIC is part of the Institute for Information Industry. https://mic.iii.org.tw/english