TAIWAN FIRST TO MARKET

Research evidence excerpt

TAIWAN FIRST TO MARKET

Asia Pacific Equity Research

Taiwan First to Market 10 July 2026

Top Stories

Taiwan: Imports outpaced exports in June (Tingting Ge)

Downside to 2Q GDP as net trade may turn into a drag

Exports undershot expectations, dragged by electronics and non-tech, while AI-related shipments stayed resilient.

Import strength was led by capital goods, especially semi-equipment, consistent with AI/semi capex upcycle.

Trend Tapestry (Hannah L Lee)

Droning On: Taiwan drone exports are on the rise as the opportunity starts to materialize

“Red-free” drones are going for gold as Taiwan scales its manufacturing base and wins overseas orders. Taiwan exported more

drones in Q1 this year than it did all of 2025, with the Czech Republic and Poland major buyers. A €3.5 - 5bn drone and

counter-drone project (DECODER) from the European Commission announced last week suggests a positive outlook, as does

a signed Letter of Intent with AUVSI - which provides de-facto drone certification for the US DoD. Government funding for the

drone program remains up in the air, but could eventually materialize at US$6.5bn, helping the sector to grow to a projected (by

the MOEA) US$1.3bn in size, but continued ramps in military spend for drone procurement by Western nations suggests there

could be long-term upside.

TSMC (Gokul Hariharan) (2330 TT, OW)

CoWoS and Advanced Packaging Updates

Raising CoWoS capacity further at TSMC and at a faster pace at OSATs: We are raising our FY26/27/28 CoWoS capacity

estimates further by 1%/9%/11%, with TSMC’s CoWoS capacity reaching 115k/190k/225k wfpm by end 26/27/28. TSMC

appears to have accelerated its capacity expansion plans in AP7 Phase 2 (now 50-60% allocated to CoWoS, compared to