Taiwan's telecom equipment industry saw revenue soar 28% in 2004

Taipei, Jan. 20, 2005 (CENS)--Taiwan's telecom-equipment industry saw its sales revenues rise 28% from 2003 to NT$400.3 billion (US$12.5 billion at US$1:NT$32) last year, and the figure is likely to further surge 11% this year, according to a local market research organization.

Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center (IEK) of the government-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) said the Taiwanese industry's revenues will likely increase to NT$443.1 billion (US$13.8 billion) by the end of this year.

The center's study showed that overseas productions accounted for 39% of the 2004 revenues of the Taiwan industry, increasing from 2003's 25%. The center's fellow researcher H.C. Chang attributed the production-base shift mostly to local manufacturers' pursuits for lower production costs and proximities to customer base overseas.

Mainland China and Southeast Asian nations have become the major overseas production bases for Taiwanese telecom-equipment suppliers, with the mainland accommodating 28% of the Taiwanese overseas production.

North America and Europe absorbed 26% and 30% of the Taiwanese shipments last year, making them the two major markets for the Taiwan industry.

The Taiwan industry's mobile-phone sector delivered around 56 million handsets valued at NT$130 billion (US$4 billion) last year, up 27% by volume and 23% by value from 2003, the center's research fellows pointed out.

Last year, Taiwan's broadband-equipment sector reported total revenues of NT$144.3 billion (US$4.5 billion), up 27% from 2003, and its wireless-equipment sector had revenues of NT$256 billion (US$8 billion), rising 29% from the previous year. IEK specialists pointed out that mobile phone and wireless local area network (WLAN) equipment remained the major products of Taiwan's wireless-equipment sector. The island's WLAN-equipment segment put out 54.89 million units valued at NT$50.5 billion (US$1.5 million).

Last year, Taiwan's top 10 telecom devices were mobile phone, WLAN equipment, digital subscriber line (DSL) equipment, customer premise equipment (CPE), SOHO router, global positioning system (GPS), Ethernet switch, Bluetooth products, cable CPE, Internet protocol (IP) phone and analog modem.