Electronic devices account for over 40% of Taiwan's exports, but semiconductor products are shipped through air freight. Meanwhile, notebook PC and smartphone production lines have migrated to other regions, but are still highly dependent on chips produced in Taiwan. Thus the destinations of semiconductor exports may gradually shift to different locations.
The shipping industry, passenger or cargo, has slowly recovered to pre-COVID-19 levels. It is worth noting that since air cargo capacities were booked up by e-commerce demand, failing to make appropriate adjustments in shipping components by air for regional production schedules may result in a breaking point in the supply chain.
The winners before the creation of cell phones were Cisco and telecom service companies such as Nokia and Ericsson. However, with the launch of the iPhone in 2007, the cell phone evolved from being a traditional one-way messaging tool to a carrier that could upload and download data, and the world took a giant leap forward with the transmission of large amounts of data.
Looking at the world's total GDP, which has increased 25 times over the past 70 years, we can also look at Taiwan's experience and find a few turning points in time to explore in detail the key factors that drove the growth.
Using the IMF's statistics on global GDP, I will explore the keys to the post-1950 rise of the four Asian Tigers. I have chosen 1950, 1980, 2009, 2019, and 2023 as nodes to explore the century and the world as we have experienced it.
Visual Capitalist has published a study that organizes the evolution of total economic output and GDP for various countries over the past 2,000 years. Using data estimated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the statistics show how human economic activity has evolved over the past 2,000 years.
The market is looking forward to the business opportunities of electric vehicles; however, the demand has been impacted by the weaker-than-expected macroeconomic growth.
In 2023, Taiwan's exports declined by 9.8%, which is of course related to the weakening of electronics exports, but with a total export value of US$432.5 billion, a trade surplus of US$80.56 billion, and a surplus of over US$300 billion in tax revenue, the overall result is not too bad. S&P Global projects a 19.2% growth for Taiwan's exports in 2024. What can be expected optimistically and what should be planned for?
In 2023, 940 plus publicly listed electronics companies in Taiwan reported a total of US$833 billion in revenues, down 12.6% from US$953 billion in 2022. This number reflected the global industry struggle last year. Looking ahead into 2024, many electronic company executives said they expect a gradual rebound this year. However, we observe that not only the pace of the rebound is slower than expected, but the strength in the rebounds is also significantly different in sectors.
Newcomers to the industry are often intimidated by the flexibility and diversity of the strategies of the traditional large companies that are constantly responding to change. When analyzing industry trends, real-time information is needed with industry knowledge accumulated over the years. We have selected 10 issues enterprises must pay attention to in 2024 for this series of column articles.
Geopolitical pressures and changes in industrial structure are driving strategic collaborations among semiconductor companies, with various countries or regions incentivized for partnerships, particularly Taiwan and Japan. However, support from Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea is essential to establish ICT supply chains in emerging countries such as South Asia and Southeast Asia.
The Japanese government's efforts to attract foreign semiconductor investment have been very effective, with almost every major international semiconductor manufacturer responding to the call. In addition, Rapidus, a company formed by a consortium of local companies, is also targeting the development of cutting-edge processes.
In the second half of the 1990s, Samsung Electronics came to the forefront of Dataquest's DRAM manufacturer rankings. NEC and Toshiba were in second and third place, and other Japanese companies were ranked in the top 10.
The "globalization era" should be counted from the 1960s, when Japan and the Four Asian Tigers created a rare economic miracle by developing their industries one after another, as described by the "flying geese" theory. The period between the collapse of the USSR in 1990 and before the 2008 Beijing Olympics can be considered the golden years of "globalization."
