Tensions between the US and China are causing some manufacturers to discuss moving some of their supply chain away from Taiwan, although the pace is “incremental,” Reuters reported yesterday, citing MediaTek Inc (聯發科) chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行).
Some of the “very large [equipment manufacturers] will require their chip suppliers to have multiple sources, like from Taiwan and from US, or from Germany or from Europe,” Reuters quoted Tsai as saying on the sidelines of a media and analyst event the Taiwanese handset chip designer hosted in California on Friday.
“I think in those cases, we will have to find multiple sources for the same chip if the business warrants that,” Tsai said.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Reuters said MediaTek’s most advanced smartphone chips are made at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) plants in Taiwan, with some older smartphone chips being made by GlobalFoundries Inc in the US and Singapore.
The company in July announced that it had formed a strategic partnership with Intel Corp to manufacture chips using the US company’s matured process technology.
With TSMC constructing a US$12 billion plant in Arizona, MediaTek would also be producing chips there when it begins production, Tsai said.
However, he cautioned that it was not realistic for the semiconductor industry to move completely away from Taiwan, which produces most of the world’s advanced semiconductors, Reuters said.
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