13 VDMA member companies set off to present their product and service portfolio to Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturers. Dr. Sandra Engle, VDMA Productronic, provides a personal view of the delegation trip.
A wide range of VDMA member companies were present during the trip, from component manufacturers to plant engineering for chemical processing. The companies represented a wide range of technologies (from camera manufacturers to soldering ovens, inspection systems and laser processing machines). In addition to the ITRI, seven leading companies along the semiconductor value chain were visited, from substrate production to semiconductor packaging. These included the world's largest contract manufacturer TSMC and Powertech Technology Inc (PTI). The VDMA member companies were informed about the technological requirements of Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturers and how they could make it onto the supplier list. On the other hand, the companies visited were given an insight into the technological expertise of European machine and component manufacturers. There is a lot of knowledge in Taiwan about Japanese and Korean equipment manufacturers - European equipment manufacturers are less well known, and we brought this knowledge to the country with the delegation trip. The partner of the trip was the ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute), a leading Taiwanese research institute. What impressed me most was the warm welcome culture in Taiwan and the excellent preparation of the companies we visited, as well as the concrete interest in European technology.
Our 13 member companies were also very impressed by the wealth of information and the many open doors. A return visit to Powerchip Technology Corporation (PSMC) took place on April 12. This led to discussions about the challenges facing the global semiconductor industry and opportunities for cooperation with Europe's mechanical and plant engineering network.
Finally, a few figures on the semiconductor industry in Taiwan - the second largest in the world: Sales totaled $138 billion in 2023, and the outlook for the current year is $157 billion (+14% growth). The growth drivers are the areas of
- Automotive (autonomous driving and surround view systems require faster data processing)
- High performance computing
- Artificial intelligence (data mining requires powerful processors for data processing)
- Increasing automation in production (e.g. machine status monitoring).
