| Taiwan is world-renowned for the excellence
of its manufacturing technology, making it, by 2005, the world’s
second biggest producer of information and communications hardware.
Taiwanese corporations have adopted a business model whereby company
headquarters in Taiwan is responsible for securing orders, but
the actual manufacturing takes place overseas.. The range of products
manufactured by Taiwanese companies includes semiconductors, optoelectronic
products, IT hardware and communications equipment. The combined
global market share held by Taiwanese manufacturers exceeds 70%
for several key products, including notebook PCs, motherboards,
Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) equipment, liquid crystal display
(LCD) panel, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) customer premise equipment
and optical disk drive (ODD) products.
By 2004, the annual production value of Taiwan’s semiconductor
industry had reached approximately 1.099 trillion New Taiwan Dollars,
34.2% up on 2003; in 2005, production value was forecast to rise
still further, to 1.2 trillion NTD. Taiwan had higher production
value than any other country in the world for both Mask Read Only
Memory (Mask ROM) and IC assembly, and ranked third in the world
for Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DRAM) production value; Taiwan’s
annual DRAM production value was nearly as high as that of the
United States. In terms of production value, the global market
share of Taiwan’s IC design industry was second only to the United
States.
In the chemical materials and special chemicals industries, Taiwan
has a comprehensive supply chain that integrates every aspect
of upstream and downstream production. Average annual production
value exceeds 40 billion USD, and the Taiwanese chemical industry
supplies both domestic customers and all major global markets.
In terms of production volume, Taiwan is the world’s largest producer
of Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS), while in terms of production
value it is the world’s second largest producer of Pure Terephthalic
Acid (PTA), Polyurethane (PU) leather and Thermoplastic Elastomer
(TPE). Taiwan’s chemical materials and special chemicals industries
are currently transforming themselves to focus on the development
of high-value-added products, with the hi-tech sector (the electronics
and information industries) becoming a particularly important
market. For example, in 2004 Taiwan’s Light Emitting Diode (LED)
industry accounted for twenty-six percent of total global production
value, making Taiwan the second biggest producer nation in the
world after Japan. The Taiwanese government has designated both
the chemical materials and special chemicals industries as key
strategic industries, with particular emphasis being placed on
the development of optoelectronics, electronic materials and cosmetics
products.
The performance of Taiwan’s machinery manufacturing industry has
been very impressive, both in the domestic market and in export
markets. Taiwan ranks third in the world in production of woodworking
machinery, fourth in the world in production of machinery for
textile and garment manufacturing, and fifth in the world in production
of toolroom machines. Currently, Taiwan’s machinery manufacturing
industry is in the process of reorienting itself to focus on high-precision
and automated equipment; the machinery industry also provides
much of the production equipment used by the semiconductor and
display industries, two of the key industries targeted by the
government’s “Two Trillion, Twin Star” industry plan, which in
turn has helped to ensure high growth in the precision toolroom
machine manufacturing sector.
Overall, in 2004 there were more than 30 products for which Taiwan
was the world’s leading producer. These included notebook PCs,
motherboards, ABS resin, WLAN equipment, IC products, DVD recorders,
fiberglass, etc. In terms of production value, Taiwan ranked second
in the world in IC design, digital cameras and PU leather and
third in the world in DRAM, LCD panel and nylon fiber. Taiwan’s
strength in manufacturing technology provides the country with
a solid foundation for further industrial upgrading in the future.
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