Chip demand from China-based handset companies is picking up and will buoy sales performance at related chip suppliers, such as application processor designer MediaTek and LCD driver IC solution provider FocalTech Systems, starting the second quarter of 2018, according to industry sources.

MediaTek saw its March revenues start to register sequential growth, with the revenues surging 58.2% sequentially to NT$20.11 billion (US$688.1 million), while FocalTech's March revenues climbed to a record high of NT$1.16 billion.

MediaTek and FocalTech are among the chip firms involved in the supply chain of first-tier China-based smartphone companies including Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi, which have stepped up their pace of orders prior to new product releases, the sources said.

As the four smartphone vendors' combined share of China's smartphone market has exceeded 70%, their Taiwan-based chip providers are expected to outperform those which fail to obtain orders from the four major China-based smartphone companies during 2018, the sources indicated.

The first-tier China-based smartphone firms' expanded presence overseas will also buoy further their chip suppliers' sales performance during 2018, the sources noted.

In addition, market observers are generally less optimistic about China's smartphone market outlook for 2018. China was once the engine of the global smartphone market growth. According to Canalys, China's smartphone market suffered its first annual decline in unit shipments during 2017.

According to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, smartphone shipments in China fell 27% from a year earlier to 81.87 million units in the first quarter of 2018.