During the 2023 Healthcare Expo Taiwan, Qisda Corporation showcased its grand arsenal of medical technologies and services. Harry Yang, the President of the conglomerate's Medical Devices Products Group, affirmed the company's commitment to propelling diverse medical ventures to new heights through continuous investments and strategic integration within the ASEAN market.
LG Display (LGD)'s LCD business in China continues to incur losses due to the expansion of Chinese competitors. Currently, the utilization rate at LGD's 8.5-gen LCD factory in Guangzhou is only 50%, which has garnered talks about whether or not it will be sold in the future. After the reported acquisition interest from Skyworth ultimately fell through, BOE and TCL CSOT emerged as strong acquisition candidates. It has been reported that Samsung Electronics may be involved as well.
The India-based HCL Group is reportedly in talks with the government of Karnataka to set up an OSAT facility in the state, making it another Indian company to venture into the chipmaking business.
Padget Electronics, a subsidiary of India-based Dixon Technologies, inaugurated a large smartphone factory in northern India, making products for Xiaomi, which makes it the first Indian factory to make products for major China-based smartphone brands.
Volkswagen Group has accelerated collaboration between its brands and third-party software developers. One of the cases was Porsche announced at the end of October that it will adopt Google's Android Automotive operating system in its software 1.2 platform.
Despite the cyclical downturn in the semiconductor industry, semiconductor companies in China are scaling up their investments and nurturing each other amid a full-blown indigenization wave, putting high pressure on Taiwan-based IC design houses.
DIGITIMES Research analyst is cautious about India's ambitious plan to make a breakthrough in chipmaking in five years. Foxconn announced a fresh round of investments to expand manufacturing capacities in India.
China, in an attempt to counter the external narrative of "supply chain relocation" and "decoupling," made a significant move by hosting the inaugural China International Supply Chain Expo ("Chain Expo") in Beijing. Several Apple's suppliers attended together to demonstrate Apple's commitment to deepening its roots in China and showcasing the strength of local suppliers.
Despite its attempt to catch up with TSMC, Samsung Electronics is rumored to have recently lost several significant orders for its 3nm process. The South Korean industry believes that the gap in semiconductor foundry capabilities between Samsung and TSMC is likely to widen further.
Key gauges of activity at Asia's factories failed to turn around the bearish sentiment in November, as global demand for goods remained soft and China's faltering economic recovery tempered any optimism.
Samsung Electronics anticipates a recovery in the terminal market in 2024 and reportedly plans to increase the production of televisions and smartphones by 10% annually, potentially driving the recovery of markets such as semiconductors, components, and displays.
Samsung Electronics is not only investing actively in the R&D and capacity expansion of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) technology, but also looking to broaden its market reach through customized one-stop services that incorporate 2.5D packaging. Recent media reports indicate Samsung is purchasing 2.5D bonding equipment from Japanese supplier Shinkawa, potentially targeting HBM and packaging orders associated with Nvidia's next-generation GPUs.
China-based EV company Nio secured a partnership with another traditional carmaker in China. Nio signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Geely Holding on November 29 for battery swapping.
Samsung Electronics' smartphone business faced intense competition worldwide in 2023. It's estimated that there will be a decrease in the number of countries where it holds the top market share compared to 2022. Despite that, it has made gains in places like India and Malaysia.
