Central Taiwan Science Park sales up over 20% in first two months

Taipei, April 2 (CNA) Sales generated by the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP) for the first two months of this year rose more than 20 percent from a year earlier to hit a new high for the period on the back of a strong showing made by the semiconductor industry, park officials said Tuesday.

Data compiled by the CTSP bureau shows that revenue posted in the two-month period rose 20.52 percent from a year earlier to a high of NT$131.9 billion (US$4.28 billion).

The CTSP is one of the three major science parks in Taiwan, housing factories owned by the country's major tech firms, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest pure wafer foundry operator. The other two are the Hsinchu Science Park in northern Taiwan and the Southern Taiwan Science Park.

Chen Ming-huang (陳銘煌), head of the CTSP bureau, said that despite the reduced number of working days in the two-month period caused by the nine-day Lunar New Year holiday and the 228 holiday, strong global demand for 5G, automotive electronics and artificial intelligence applications still pushed up sales for semiconductor firms in the park.

In the two-month period, revenue registered by semiconductor firms in the CTSP totaled NT$99.83 billion, up NT$23.36 billion, or 30.54 percent, from a year earlier, thanks to demand for the advanced 7-nanometer process and DRAM chips, Chen said.

The semiconductor industry accounted for 75.68 percent of the CTSP's total sales in the two months. In addition to TSMC, which runs a sophisticated 12-inch wafer plant in the park, other integrated circuit heavyweights, including IC packaging and testing services provider Siliconware Precision Industries Co., and memory chip maker Winbond Electronics Corp., have plants there.

U.S.-based DRAM supplier Micron Technology Inc. and semiconductor production equipment maker Applied Materials Inc. also have operations in the park.

According to the CTSP bureau, the optoelectronics industry is the second-largest business in the park, posting NT$26.04 billion in sales in the two months, accounting for 19.74 percent of the total. Among the optoelectronics firms running operations in the park are flat panel maker AU Optronics Corp. and smartphone camera lens supplier Genius Electronic Optical Co.

Chen said the biotech industry in the park has also been booming, enjoying an increase of NT$310 million in sales or 43.01 percent rise for the two-month period, up 43.1 percent from a year earlier.

He said the bureau has forecast that such a growth trend will continue for the rest of this year, predicting that revenue for 2019 will reach NT$800 billion, up from NT$724.9 billion in 2018.