The Kaohsiung City Government yesterday approved Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) plan to build a new plant in the city, saying a second environmental review was not necessary.
The plant is to focus on making 7-nanometer and 28-nanometer chips, in line with rising demand from global customers.
The city government discussed for two hours environmental influences that would arise from TSMC’s plant and concluded that the world’s largest contract chipmaker met all requirements, rendering a second assessment unnecessary.
Photo: Ko Yu-hao, Taipei Times
TSMC is Apple Inc’s sole chip supplier. Its other major customers include Nvidia Corp, Intel Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Qualcomm Inc and MediaTek Inc (聯發科).
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated a global digital transformation as lockdowns in different parts of the world has led to a surge in demand for personal computers and other devices that connect to the Internet, the Hsinchu-based chipmaker has said.
Chip demand also picked up due to widespread use of online payment tools and the increasing popularity of electric vehicles, it said.
The planned TSMC facility has boosted housing prices in Kaohsiung by double-digit percentage points since its announcement in September last year.
TSMC has come up with plans to address the unfavorable side-effects of its manufacturing activity and has pledged to use solar energy sources, Kaohsiung officials said.
The new complex would cover 9.2 hectares of land and would cover a total of 12 hectares after factoring in greenery, the company said.
TSMC’s investment marks a concrete leap in the city government’s efforts to build a semiconductor corridor, 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
RSS