Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) had the second-biggest wafer capacity in the world last year, US-based market advisory firm IC Insights said in a report last week.
TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, had monthly production capacity of about 2.5 million 8-inch equivalent wafers, up 3 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 12.8 percent of the global market, IC Insights said.
TSMC’s monthly wafer production capacity included its share in two major subsidiaries: Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Systems on Silicon Manufacturing Co, a Singapore-based joint venture with the Netherland’s NXP Semiconductors NV, the report said.
TSMC is adding a new facility at its Fab 15 complex in Taichung and a new fab near its Fab 14 compound in Tainan, which are expected to boost production capacity further, IC Insights said.
Samsung Electronics Co took the top spot in worldwide wafer production capacity by rolling out 2.94 million 8-inch equivalent wafers a month, little changed from a year earlier, the report said.
The South Korean company has 15 percent of the world market, the report added.
Unlike TSMC, Samsung uses about two-thirds of its wafers to produce DRAM and NAND flash memory chips.
The firm has major construction projects under way, including large new fabs in Hwaseong and Pyeongtaek in South Korea, and Xian, China, IC Insights said.
Micron Technology Inc came in third with production capacity of 1.84 million 8-inch equivalent wafers a month, up 9 percent annually and accounting for 9.4 percent of the world total, the report said.
The US DRAM supplier received a boost from a new wafer plant in Singapore last year, it added.
SK Hynix Inc was fourth with capacity of 1.74 million 8-inch equivalent wafers a month, up 7 percent year-on-year, with 8.9 percent of the global market, the report said.
The South Korean firm assigned more than 80 percent of its wafers for DRAM production, it added.
Kioxia Holdings Corp, whose predecessor is Toshiba Memory of Japan, was fifth with monthly wafer production capacity of 1.41 million 8-inch equivalent wafers, up 3 percent from a year earlier and making up 7.2 percent of the global total, the report said.
The top five firms accounted for 53 percent of total global production capacity, IC Insights said.
TSMC, GlobalFoundries Inc, United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯國際) and Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (力積電) were the world’s top five contract chipmakers last year, IC Insights said.
They had a combined monthly capacity of 4.8 million 8-inch equivalent wafers, representing about 24 percent of the global total, it added.
SETBACK: Apple’s India iPhone push has been disrupted after Foxconn recalled hundreds of Chinese engineers, amid Beijing’s attempts to curb tech transfers Apple Inc assembly partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has recalled about 300 Chinese engineers from a factory in India, the latest setback for the iPhone maker’s push to rapidly expand in the country. The extraction of Chinese workers from the factory of Yuzhan Technology (India) Private Ltd, a Hon Hai component unit, in southern Tamil Nadu state, is the second such move in a few months. The company has started flying in Taiwanese engineers to replace staff leaving, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named, as the
The prices of gasoline and diesel at domestic fuel stations are to rise NT$0.1 and NT$0.4 per liter this week respectively, after international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to rise to NT$27.3, NT$28.8 and NT$30.8 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to rise to NT$26.2 per liter at CPC stations and NT$26 at Formosa pumps, they said. The announcements came after international crude oil prices
DOLLAR SIGNS: The central bank rejected claims that the NT dollar had appreciated 10 percentage points more than the yen or the won against the greenback The New Taiwan dollar yesterday fell for a sixth day to its weakest level in three months, driven by equity-related outflows and reactions to an economics official’s exchange rate remarks. The NT dollar slid NT$0.197, or 0.65 percent, to close at NT$30.505 per US dollar, central bank data showed. The local currency has depreciated 1.97 percent so far this month, ranking as the weakest performer among Asian currencies. Dealers attributed the retreat to foreign investors wiring capital gains and dividends abroad after taking profit in local shares. They also pointed to reports that Washington might consider taking equity stakes in chipmakers, including Taiwan Semiconductor
A German company is putting used electric vehicle batteries to new use by stacking them into fridge-size units that homes and businesses can use to store their excess solar and wind energy. This week, the company Voltfang — which means “catching volts” — opened its first industrial site in Aachen, Germany, near the Belgian and Dutch borders. With about 100 staff, Voltfang says it is the biggest facility of its kind in Europe in the budding sector of refurbishing lithium-ion batteries. Its CEO David Oudsandji hopes it would help Europe’s biggest economy ween itself off fossil fuels and increasingly rely on climate-friendly renewables. While