TSMC planning to seek approval for China-based plant

Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (台積電) said it will seek the government's permission as early as July to build its first chip plant in China, aiming to tap the world's third-largest market for semiconductors.

"We will announce [the location] once we receive approval from the government," company spokesman Tzeng Jinnhaw (曾晉皓) said, confirming a media report that cited Tseng Fan-chen (曾繁城), TSMC's chief executive officer.

TSMC, the world's biggest made-to-order chipmaker, earlier said it may start production at a plant in China as early as the end of next year. The company will equip the plant with old production equipment that makes 8-inch silicon wafers, the material from which chips are cut.

The government revised rules this year, allowing local chipmakers that invest in newer 12-inch wafer plants to move some of their older production equipment to China. TSMC plans to build the plant in Songjiang, near Shanghai.