Taiwan-based companies are projected to grab top market share spots of information technology (IT) and telecommunication products markets, said Market Intelligence Center (MIT), which is funded by the country’s government. Particularly, manufacturers based in Taiwan this year are expected to supply 98.3% of mainboards and 82.4% of mobile computers, up from the previous year.

Chin Su-hsia, deputy director at MIC is reported to have said that production value of Taiwanese IT industry in 2005 would reach $80 billion, among which the lion’s share of shipments, $30.2 billion, would account for notebooks. It is expected that the global market share of notebooks supplied by the Taiwanese companies will be 82.4%, up from 72.3% in 2004. Furthermore, mainboards made by manufacturers based in Taiwan are expected to account for 98.3% of all supplies this year, up 1.8% annually.

Taiwanese companies are also expected to grab over 50% of global market share with some other hi-tech products this year. Particularly, 89% of wireless local area network (WLAN) cards are claimed to be made by the country’s manufacturers, about 59% of access point (AP) devices are projected to be supplied by Taiwan-based firms, 77% of Internet telephones are reported to be assembled by Taiwanese firms and 83% of routers for embedded Internet telephones are also estimated to originate from firms companies in Taiwan.

Taiwan’s large-sized LCD panel shipments are estimated to account for 46.6% of the volume in the global market this year, and the percentage is predicted to grow to 49% in 2006.

In 2006 the industry’s total production value is forecast to see an annual growth of 9.4%, to $87.5 billion, the web-site of the country’s government says. The deputy director at MIC said that the island’s booming IT industry was mostly due to rising orders received from the world’s top brands, such as Dell and HP, which seriously depend on their contractors in Taiwan.

Nevertheless, Mr. Chin said that the abovementioned estimates do not take into account possible influence of avian flu potential outbreak. If the breakout happens in the near future, the estimates may get smaller due to global lowering of purchasing power.