Taiwan-based IC and material distributors are expected to see their profit growths this year outperform revenue increases, as shortages of IC parts and materials are sending prices up, according to industry sources.

IC substrate makers in Apple's iPhone supply chain are aggressively bracing for production of BT-based AiP (antenna in package) substrates expecting a surge in demand for new iPhones in 2021, according to industry sources.

Nexperia has announced a comprehensive partnership covering gallium nitride (GaN) power semiconductor devices with United Automotive Electronic Systems (UAES). The program will focus on power systems for electric vehicles (EV), with the aim to jointly develop automotive applications using GaN technology.

Taiwan-based FCCL manufacturers including Taiflex Scientific and Asia Electronic Material (AEM) have posted strong on-year revenue increases for the first quarter of 2021 thanks to robust demand for non-handset applications, with the momentum to remain in the second quarter, according to industry sources.

MLCC and chip resistor specialists Yageo and Walsin Technology both saw their revenues for the first quarter of 2021 come to high levels compared to the same period in previous years.

Nan Ya PCB and Kinsus Interconnect Technology are both poised to expand capacity for ABF substrates with additional output set to come online later this year, according to industry sources.

III-V compound epitaxial wafer maker Visual Photonics Epitaxy (VPEC) has reported consolidated revenues of NT$341.6 million (US$12.0 million) for March, the highest-ever monthly level, growing 24.42% sequentially and 52.47% on year.

Total semiconductor shipments including shipments of ICs as well as optoelectronics, sensor/actuator and discrete (O-S-D) devices are forecast to rise 13% to a record high of 1.135 trillion units in 2021, according to IC Insights. It would mark the third time that semiconductor units have surpassed one trillion units in a calendar year - the first time being in 2018.

Taiwan's PCB maker Apex International, with main manufacturing operations in Thailand, saw its first-quarter 2021 revenues grow 7.9% sequentially and 25.2% on year to NT$3.261 billion (US$116.46 million), and expects its second-quarter sales to sustain on-year expansion as order visibility has extended to mid-2021.

Fractus Antennas, formed by engineers who invented the technology allowing smartphone antennas to automatically switch between different bandwidth networks and launched mini-antennas for the Internet of Things (IoT) era, has recently rebranded itself as Ignion.

Taiwan's CCL makers have reported double-digit on-year increases for their first-quarter 2021 revenues, with notebook and automotive applications being two main growth engines, and they expect shipments of high speed/frequency CCL for server and networking applications to ramp up steadily in the months ahead, according to industry sources.

Taiwan's III-V semiconductor players including foundries Win Semiconductors and Advanced Wireless Semiconductor (AWSC), and IDM Transcom have all reported impressive sales results for March 2021, driven by a ramp-up in power amplifier (PA) and RF demand for smartphones and Wi-Fi 6 devices, according to industry sources.

Tight global supply of TXCO (temperature-compensated crystal oscillator) controller ICs seen after a fire damaged in October 2020 a plant operated by Japan's leading vendor AKM is expected to ease in the third quarter of 2021 as other suppliers are ramping up their shipments, according to industry sources.

Japan's Sumitomo Chemical has joined Taiwan's CCL makers including Nan Ya Plastics and Iteq in raising quotes by 10-15% starting this week to reflect increased costs for upstream raw materials, suggesting little room for makers themselves to absorb cost increases on their own, according to industry sources.

Materials for PCBs and IC packaging have seen prices rising and the upward trend is set to continue in the second quarter, according to industry sources in Taiwan.

Taiwan's PCB equipment makers have seen their shipment schedules well set through the third quarter of the year and are in talks with clients about equipment orders for fourth-quarter 2021 and even for 2022, according to industry sources.

Taiwan PCB makers are moving to diversify the sources of CCLs in a bid to secure supply to meet increasing demand from clients and abate risks of further price hikes for the materials, according to industry sources.

Taiwan-based Powertech Technology (PTI), a packaging partner for Intel's NAND flash chips, has newly landed backend SMT testing orders for CPUs from the chipmaker, and will see the new orders contribute revenues starting second-quarter 2021, according to industry sources.

Taiwan's leading PCB vendor Zhen Ding Technology has been diversifying its target markets to rely less on handset applications, with the efforts set to bear fruit starting 2021.

The supply of tape COF substrates is expected to fall short of demand in 2021, due to growing COF packaging demand for OLED display driver ICs (DDI) , according to industry sources.

Prices for packaging-use epoxy molding compounds (EMC) will rise 10% starting April and supply shortages are expected to persist through the end of 2021 at least, according to Chang Wah Electromaterials, a Taiwan-based distributor of IC packaging materials.

LED chip and Si-based sensor chip maker Opto Tech will set up a platform for integrating sensing system technologies in a bid to offer one-stop services in the segment, according to company president David Huang.

Leadframe supplier Chang Wah Technology (CWTC) has seen clear order visibility through April 2022, in line with wire-bonding process capacity at backend houses already booked by chipmakers through first-half of next year.

Eternal Materials, which supplies resin materials and dry-film photoresists, is set to invest CNY90.52 million (US$13.84 million) to build a coating production line at a plant in Suzhou, China, with the new capacity to become fully operational as early as second-half 2022.

Taiwan-based CCL makers including Nan Ya Plastics, Iteq and Taiwan Union Technology (TUC) will raise their quotes by 15-20% starting April in response to increased costs of copper foil and other materials, according to industry sources.