Asian chip foundries make strong comeback
AFP, Singapore
Asia's chip foundries are making a strong comeback in 2004 after three lean years as demand for electronic products booms and semiconductor makers increasingly outsource production, analysts said. The Asian-dominated global foundry market, which generated revenues of 13 billion US dollars in 2003, is tipped to grow 41 percent this year and 37 percent in 2005, US-based technology research Gartner Inc said at an industry roadshow here last week. "The foundry market has entered a new cycle of growth ... we do see the foundry market heating up and utilisation rates have been increasing," Gartner's principal analyst, James Hines, said. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is the biggest foundry in the world with a 45 percent market share and recorded a three-fold increase in net profits in the March quarter to 18.79 billion Taiwan dollars (567.67 million US) from a year ago.
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