Government officials and business representatives yesterday participated in a groundbreaking ceremony at the Nanzih Technology Industrial Park (楠梓科技產業園區) in Kaohsiung, where Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is to construct a 12-inch wafer plant.
The 238-hectare park sits on the former site of a naphtha cracking plant owned by state-owned oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油).
Thirty hectares of the first phase of development are reserved for TSMC’s planned factory, while the second phase is to be occupied by international semiconductor material and equipment companies, the Executive Yuan said in a statement yesterday.
Photo: Ge You-hao, Taipei Times
“The park will be connected with Tainan Science Park (臺南科學園區), Kaohsiung Luzhu Science Park (高雄路竹科學園區) and Kaohsiung Ciaotou Science Park (高雄橋頭科學園區) to form a semiconductor corridor in southern Taiwan, allowing the nation’s technology industry to develop more vigorously,” the statement said.
Kaohsiung Economic Development Bureau Director-General Liao Tai-hsiang (廖泰翔) said the city government has signed a contract with TSMC, with public facilities such as roads and flood detention ponds in the Nanzih park being planned before formal construction.
Liao said construction of the Kaohsiung plant, which the world’s largest contract chipmaker announced in November last year, could start soon.
TSMC has said the plant is to use the advanced 7-nanometer process and the mature 28-nanometer process to produce chips, with production scheduled to begin in 2024.
The city government said earlier that TSMC’s presence in the Nanzih park could help establish a semiconductor cluster in the southern port city within five years, which would boost high-end semiconductor technology development and cultivate a talent pool for the industry.
“Kaohsiung has transformed from an agricultural base into an industrial hub, and the replacement of the CPC’s old naphtha cracking plant by an advanced TSMC fab shows the city is undergoing a rebirth,” Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said yesterday at the groundbreaking ceremony.
“What people saw first by taking a train to Kaohsiung in the past was CPC’s refinery facilities, but the first stop they will see two years from now will be the TSMC plant,” Chen added.
Addressing the ceremony, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said the central government would offer full support to the transformation of Kaohsiung, citing the rapid development of a 5G artificial intelligence of things innovation park in the city’s Asia New Bay Area (亞洲新灣區) over the past year.
Also attending the ceremony yesterday were Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花), Executive Yuan spokesperson Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成), National Science and Technology Council Minister Wu Tsung-tsong (吳政忠), TSMC vice president for fab operations Wang Ying-lang (王英郎) and CPC chairman Lee Shun-chin (李順欽), as well as representatives from ASML Holding NV, Entegris Inc, Merck Group and Valqua Ltd, the city government said.
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