Netherlands-based ASML Holding NV, a leading global supplier of semiconductor production equipment, is considering bringing its European suppliers to Taiwan, doubling down on its supply-chain deployment in the country, Vice Premier Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) said yesterday.
That follows ASML’s announcement that it would build manufacturing facilities in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口) to support international customers and the development of the semiconductor industry.
RELOCATION
Photo: Bloomberg
Shen did not disclose details about ASML’s new efforts to relocate European supply chains to Taiwan.
ASML is to begin construction on the New Taipei City project in July, Shen said during a speech at a technology forum on Taiwan’s and Japan’s key semiconductor technology deployment and talent cultivation.
The project would be the Dutch firm’s biggest investment in Taiwan, and the continued cooperation between the company and Taiwan should enhance each other’s semiconductor capabilities.
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry has contributed significantly to the country’s economy, with production hitting NT$4.1 trillion (US$133.8 billion) last year and creating 300,000 jobs, he said.
NO COMMENT
Asked about Shen’s comment on its supply-chain allocation plan, ASML said in a e-mail to the Taipei Times: “We support global semiconductor industry development. We do not comment on specific cases or customers.”
ASML is the world’s sole supplier of extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) photolithography machines used by semiconductor manufacturers to produce cutting-edge chips.
It has become one of the foremost wafer-foundry equipment suppliers to Taiwanese manufacturers, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker.
ASML has five factories in Taiwan employing more than 4,500 people and plans to increase its investments in the country.
The company in 2020 launched a global EUV training center for engineers at the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學園區) in Tainan.
JITTERS: Nexperia has a 20 percent market share for chips powering simpler features such as window controls, and changing supply chains could take years European carmakers are looking into ways to scratch components made with parts from China, spooked by deepening geopolitical spats playing out through chipmaker Nexperia BV and Beijing’s export controls on rare earths. To protect operations from trade ructions, several automakers are pushing major suppliers to find permanent alternatives to Chinese semiconductors, people familiar with the matter said. The industry is considering broader changes to its supply chain to adapt to shifting geopolitics, Europe’s main suppliers lobby CLEPA head Matthias Zink said. “We had some indications already — questions like: ‘How can you supply me without this dependency on China?’” Zink, who also
At least US$50 million for the freedom of an Emirati sheikh: That is the king’s ransom paid two weeks ago to militants linked to al-Qaeda who are pushing to topple the Malian government and impose Islamic law. Alongside a crippling fuel blockade, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) has made kidnapping wealthy foreigners for a ransom a pillar of its strategy of “economic jihad.” Its goal: Oust the junta, which has struggled to contain Mali’s decade-long insurgency since taking power following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, by scaring away investors and paralyzing the west African country’s economy.
BUST FEARS: While a KMT legislator asked if an AI bubble could affect Taiwan, the DGBAS minister said the sector appears on track to continue growing The local property market has cooled down moderately following a series of credit control measures designed to contain speculation, the central bank said yesterday, while remaining tight-lipped about potential rule relaxations. Lawmakers in a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee voiced concerns to central bank officials that the credit control measures have adversely affected the government’s tax income and small and medium-sized property developers, with limited positive effects. Housing prices have been climbing since 2016, even when the central bank imposed its first set of control measures in 2020, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) said. “Since the second half of
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) received about NT$147 billion (US$4.71 billion) in subsidies from the US, Japanese, German and Chinese governments over the past two years for its global expansion. Financial data compiled by the world’s largest contract chipmaker showed the company secured NT$4.77 billion in subsidies from the governments in the third quarter, bringing the total for the first three quarters of the year to about NT$71.9 billion. Along with the NT$75.16 billion in financial aid TSMC received last year, the chipmaker obtained NT$147 billion in subsidies in almost two years, the data showed. The subsidies received by its subsidiaries —
RSS