Taiwan's info hardware industry sees lower production growth: III

Taipei, Dec. 18, 2003 (CENS)-- Taiwan's information hardware industry will see production value reach US$59.2 billion this year, up 9.5% from last year's US$48.3 billion, according to the government-backed Institute for Information Industry (III).

The growth represented a slowdown from a 13.1% annual growth registered in 2002.

III said total orders placed by the world's top-20 international procurement offices (IPOs) with the local information hardware industry is estimated to hit US$45 billion this year, up 11.66% from last year's US$40.3 billion. But the growth rate is also lower than last year's level.

The procurement value settled by these top IPOs this year will account for 85% of the total production value of Taiwan domestic information hardware industry,

Procurement of domestic products by the top-20 IPOs amounted to US$32.6 billion in 2000, for a sharp growth of 41.7% from the previous year's US$23 billion. In 2001, the procurement amount grew only 7% to reach US$35 billion due to global economic slowdown. Thanks to the rebound of the global economy, the amount climbed 15% to hit US$40.3 billion in 2002.

An official of the Ministry of Economic Affairs anticipated total procurements by the world's top-20 IPOs to grow 8% to 10% next year.

In terms of procurement value, the top-five IPOs in Taiwan, in descending order, are HP, Dell, Sony, Apple, and IBM. Of them, HP will boast the highest procurement value of US$16 billion to US$17 billion. Sony will post the largest increase in orders with domestic contract makers because of the sharp surge in orders for game consoles.