Relaxing the restrictions on Taiwanese wafer and plate foundries that move to China could cause disastrous damage to the economy, because it is not only the most profitable industry, but also at the core of the country’s high-tech industry, former government officials and academics warned yesterday.
The warning came at a conference organized by Taiwan Thinktank in response to the policy change announced by the Ministry of Economic Affairs in September that wafer and plate fabrication industries would be allowed to move to China.
The plans are already in the discussion stage and the conclusions will be announced before the end of the year, the ministry said.
“Design and fabrication of 12-inch wafers and plates are the powerhouses behind Taiwan’s economy — the annual profits of the entire integrated chip [IC] industry in the country is about NT$1.2 trillion [US$37 billion], and wafer and faceplate production alone accounts for one-third of it,” former minister of economic affairs Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) told the conference. “Once such powerhouses are gone, what do we have to fill such a big hole?”
Ho said that wafer and plate foundries were able to create such tremendous profits because the industry is not only about fabrication.
“When a foundry receives an order, it goes out to find a local IC design firm to design the product, buys raw materials locally and tests the product locally,” she said. “When the foundries are gone, it means all those related industries will have to go with them.”
“Taiwan is the second-largest wafer producer in the world after the US, with a global market share of 69 percent, while the Chinese market only accounts for 19 percent. Why not go somewhere else if ‘close to the market’ is such a big factor?” she said. “Wafer foundries in this country get most of their orders from the US and they ship the products back to the US. I don’t see why we cannot follow the same procedures with the Chinese market, especially when we’re geographically so close to each other.”
Business consultant Chien Yao-tang (簡耀堂) said the government may have overestimated the importance of the Chinese market.
“If you remember, in 2000 when Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp [SMIC] was founded in China, many people despaired, saying if the government didn’t lift the ban on wafer manufacturers moving to China, Taiwanese manufacturers would not be able to get a share of the Chinese market and would be left behind in the global market,” Chien said. “Ten years have passed, the Chinese IC market has been growing, but SMIC has not made a profit, except for one year, even with all the support it receives from the Chinese government.”
Former Executive Yuan adviser Hsiao Chiu-teh (蕭秋德), on the other hand, said he suspected that the government knew nothing about the industry.
“They think the semiconductor industry is like any other low-threshold, labor-intensive industry, like making PCs or umbrellas, that can easily be moved to another country,” Hsiao said. “In fact, the semiconductor industry has highly sensitive technologies at its core that are kept top secret by countries able to manufacture the products.”
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
RELEASED: Ko emerged from a courthouse before about 700 supporters, describing his year in custody as a period of ‘suffering’ and vowed to ‘not surrender’ Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released on NT$70 million (US$2.29 million) bail yesterday, bringing an end to his year-long incommunicado detention as he awaits trial on corruption charges. Under the conditions set by the Taipei District Court on Friday, Ko must remain at a registered address, wear a GPS-enabled ankle monitor and is prohibited from leaving the country. He is also barred from contacting codefendants or witnesses. After Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), posted bail, Ko was transported from the Taipei Detention Center to the Taipei District Court at 12:20pm, where he was fitted with the tracking
RSS