Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電 ) yesterday said it is postponing the construction of a new fab in Kaohsiung for the production of 7-nanometer (nm) chips in response to weak demand, but the world’s biggest contract chipmaker reiterated its commitment to continue investing in advanced technology in Taiwan.
TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) made the announcement at an Industrial Technology Research Institute (工研院) event in Hsinchu yesterday, after recent speculation about the company’s capacity expansion plan in Kaohsiung.
Last month, Wei told investors that TSMC had initially planned to build two factories to make 7-nanometer and 28-nanometer wafers in the new Nanzih Technology Industrial Park in Kaohsiung.
Photo: Tyrone Siu, REUTERS
With the semiconductor industry entering an inventory correction cycle, TSMC has “adjusted” the fab for the 7-nanometer factory due to weak demand for chips used in smartphones and computers, Wei said.
In the fourth quarter of this year, the capacity utilization of 7-nanometer and 6-nanometer chips would not be as high as it had been in the past three years, he said.
However, the plan to build the 28-nanometer fab would proceed on schedule and could even be expanded, he said.
The chipmaker has yet to break ground on either project. A groundbreaking ceremony for the park was held in August. The park is on a site where state-owned oil company CPC Corp, Taiwan (中油), used to operate a naphtha cracker.
To build a resilient supply chain, TSMC is building capacity in the US and Japan. The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that TSMC aimed to build a second chipmaking plant in Arizona.
TSMC said it is evaluating the possibility of the expansion plan, but nothing is substantial yet.
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
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
RSS