Taiwan’s computer hardware industry is forecast to grow more than 18% in value terms this year to about $40bn from last year’s $33.8bn, according to the island’s Institute for Information Industry. It will rank third in the world in terms of computer hardware production behind the US and Japan.
The massive September 21 earthquake, which disrupted industrial production for about two weeks, had little impact on the sector, an Institute statement said. It forecast Taiwan’s computer hardware output next year will grow a further 14.7% year-on-year next year to $45.7bn, by 14.1% to $52.2bn in 2001 and by 10.4% in 2002 to $57.6bn.
The figures include both domestic output and production by Taiwan manufacturers’ overseas plants, which is becoming a rapidly increasing share of the total. Excluding overseas production, Taiwan’s computer hardware output for this year will grow only 9.3% cent to $21bn, the institute said.
Notebook computers are the largest product category, and are expected to account for $10.2bn in output, up 21% per cent from last year. Monitors will rank second, with output expected to rise 24% to $9.33bn, followed by desktop computers, which are forecast to be 11.2% up to $7.2bn.
The output value of Taiwan’s computer software and services industry is
expected to soar 35% this year to $2.96bn, the institute said.
