Auto parts suppliers relying on air freight to make timely deliveries could become a common practice in the future, industry watchers say, as the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the world's supply chains. As sea freight congestion has made deliveries unreliable, auto parts and even newly produced vehicles would become common passengers on air freight for market launch. Since early 2020, ve...

Market survey institution IHS Markit revealed its lowest expectations yet for the automotive market in the past nine months. Due to chip shortages and delayed chip packaging, global production will fall below five million units for passenger cars this year. The Malaysian lockdown of the country, which began in early June, was a major contributing factor that worsened supply chain issues, IHS p...

Aside from the ongoing chip shortage situation that shows no sign of abating, despite chip makers investing in new factories, industry experts believe could last well into 2022. Automotive brands across the board have announced additional factory downtime; among these companies include Toyota, which worryingly reported cutting back 40% production of its output. It appears that chip shortages shou...

Leading think tank Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) issued its monthly manufacturing composite indicators for July this week, signaling a decline through its index gauging the sector's climate, though it showed a continued rapid growth phase. TIER's composite manufacturing index declined 1.16 points to 16.52 in July, a small decline from June's score of 17.68. The index remained i...

An unprecedented situation is brewing in the shipping sector after over a year of supply chain issues. With port congestion, container shortages, and backed-up sea shipping, more and more companies are choosing to charter containerships long-term to bypass the logistics hurdles. The news comes after reports of TSMC chartering its own containership to ensure timely delivery of semiconductor ch...

With third-generation semiconductors primarily using emerging materials such as GaN and SiC, industry experts have pointed out that the most relevant field for SiC will be electric vehicles, while GaN will focus on fast charging capabilities in smart mobile devices. While Taiwanese-based companies are actively investing in third-generation semiconductors, industry watchers also pointed out tha...

Several markets pose a great opportunity for Taiwanese suppliers, considering Taiwan's reputation in the information and technology industry, including 5G, EV, and low-Earth orbit satellites. Tung considers investment into these markets will significantly improve the country's competitiveness. In recent years, Pegatron has invested more and more into the EV market. The experience has prompted...

As much of the world experienced an unprecedented disruption in 2020, industries alike struggled to readapt to the new reality. A walk around Taiwan's leading auto parts show — Taipei AMPA — would see new emerging, hot technologies in the electric vehicle (EV) and autonomous vehicle sectors a contrast against the traditional auto parts suppliers. With each year, B2B sourcing platforms would incre...

The ongoing trend of the traditional automotive parts getting an upgrade with electrification and smarter capabilities has never been more evident than ever at the Taipei AMPA show, showcasing Taiwan's technological advances for the world to see. For example, the Automotive Research & Testing Center (ARTC) had been leading development in designing auto lamp adaptive driving beam (ADB) system thro...

Communicating cars, with other vehicles and related infrastructure, sounds like a concept pulled out of a sci-fi movie, however, with 5G communications technology catching up and becoming more popularized, smart transportation and smart city capabilities seem closer to us than ever. Taiwan's government has also shown a similar initiative, seeing how one of the island's most competitive industr...