Over the next five years, Taiwan is expected to become the second-largest investor worldwide in advanced 12-inch wafer fabs, SEMI, a California-based association that represents the global semiconductor sector, said yesterday.
The nation is forecast to invest US$14 billion to US$17 billion in 12-inch wafer manufacturing facilities from this year to 2024, trailing only South Korea, which is forecast to invest US$15 billion to US$19 billion, the association said.
Local semiconductor companies are expected to build 11 of the fabs during that period, it added.
Thirty-eight of the fabs are to be added worldwide — for a total of 161 — while monthly production capacity is expected to increase by about 1.8 million units to more than 7 million, the association said.
With an investment of US$11 billion to US$13 billion over five years, China would be third, it said.
China is eager to develop its own semiconductor industry and after major investment, it is expected to account for 20 percent of global production capacity by 2024, up from 8 percent in 2015, it added.
China is expected to construct eight 12-inch wafer fabs over the next five years, increasing its monthly production capacity to 1.5 million units, it said.
Global investment in 12-inch wafer fabs this year is expected to increase 13 percent, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, and an additional 4 percent next year, SEMI Taiwan president Terry Tsao (曹世綸) told reporters.
The pandemic has increased demand for chips used in devices such as cloud-based services, servers, notebook computers, and gaming consoles, as well as 5G, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence applications, he said.
The level of investment in the semiconductor industry is a good foundation for the development of advanced technologies, he said.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS