In this release, TrendForce provides predictions of the information and communication technology industry for 2019, focusing on 10 key themes. Some of these themes continue from last year but will show significant evolution in the upcoming year.
DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, reports that DRAM suppliers have been negotiating with their clients over the 4Q18 contracts towards the end of September. Looking ahead to the next quarter, DRAMeXchange expects that the quotations of DRAM products to decline by 5% QoQ, higher than the previous forecast of 1~3%. The weak quotations are mainly due to increasing bit supply yet fairly limited growth in demand, despite the coming of holiday sales season.
According to the latest report by DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, North American markets contribute to around 40% of the global server demand, but Trump’s threat of steep tariffs on Chinese goods, including server imports, may bring more risks to Taiwanese server ODMs, whose production are mainly based in China. Therefore, Taiwanese server makers are now considering moving their production facilities back to Taiwan. With the next wave of tariffs going into effect on September 24, tariffs of 10 percent will be imposed on Chinese products like servers, server modules, motherboards and network switches, so server makers are bound to relocate their facilities to minimize the impacts of the trade war on their businesses.
According to the Solar Powering Taiwan: Special Report by EnergyTrend, the Capex of PV power systems has been decreasing, due to the drop in module prices caused by massive PV installations. In 1H18, the system costs of PV projects in Taiwan have been decreasing, approaching the level in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. EnergyTrend expects the system costs to drop further in the second half of this year, which may motivate companies to make investments.
As Apple unveils its new iPhone models, TrendForce has provided the following comments for your reference.