Tokyo Electron Ltd, Asia’s biggest semiconductor equipment supplier, yesterday launched a NT$2 billion (US$61.5 million) operations center in Tainan as it aims to expand capacity and meet growing demand.
Its new Taiwan Operations Center is expected to help customers release their products faster, boost production efficiency and shorten equipment repair time in a cost-effective way, the company said.
The center is about a five-minute drive from the factories of its major customers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) advanced 3-nanometer and 2-nanometer fabs.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
The operations center would have about 1,000 employees when it is fully utilized, the company said.
TSMC vice president T.S. Chang (張宗生), who oversees advanced technology and mask engineering, attended the center’s opening ceremony, along with United Microelectronics Co (聯電) and Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電) representatives.
“With the opening of this operations center, we aim to reach two goals: First, we aim to expand our scale to cope with the ongoing growth of the Taiwanese market. Second, we hope to shorten the product repairing time cycle and to broaden the supply chain,” Tokyo Electron Taiwan Ltd chairman Hikaru Ito said at the ceremony.
The six-floor facility is comprised of a repair center and a testing lab to provide customers with one-stop services, as Taiwan plays a key role in the global artificial intelligence (AI) industry, Tokyo Electron Taiwan president Roger Chang (張天豪) said.
For the first time, the company can help fix vacuum transpiration robotic arms used in semiconductor equipment for customers in Taiwan, it said.
In the past, it took about seven months to complete the whole repair process in Japan, compared with one to two months now, it said.
The new repair center would also help customers fix damaged ovens used in lithography equipment, it said.
The company is mulling to build a more resilient supply chain in Taiwan through sourcing key parts locally, it said, adding that it has a shortlist of potential suppliers.
Taiwan has become the fourth-biggest market for the company, accounting for 13.3 percent of its total revenue in the second quarter, a spike from 9.3 percent a year earlier, a company financial statement showed.
The new operations center demonstrates the close partnership between Taiwan and Japan in the semiconductor field, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said at the opening ceremony.
STRONG INTEREST: Analysts have pointed to optimism in TSMC’s growth prospects in the artificial intelligence era as the cause of the rising number of shareholders The number of people holding shares of chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) hit a new high last week despite a decline in its stock price, the Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corp (TDCC, 台灣集保) said. The number of TSMC shareholders rose to 2.46 million as of Friday, up 75,536 from a week earlier, TDCC data showed. The stock price fell 1.34 percent during the same week to close at NT$1,840 (US$57.55). The decline in TSMC’s share price resulted from volatility in global tech stocks, driven by rising international crude oil prices as the war against Iran continues. Dealers said
PRICE HIKES: The war in the Middle East would not significantly disrupt supply in the short term, but semiconductor companies are facing price surges for materials Taiwan’s semiconductor companies are not facing imminent supply disruptions of essential chemicals or raw materials due to the war in the Middle East, but surges in material costs loom large, industry association SEMI Taiwan said yesterday. The association’s comments came amid growing concerns that supplies of helium and other key raw materials used in semiconductor production could become a choke point after Qatar shut down its liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and helium output earlier this month due to the conflict. Qatar is the second-largest LNG supplier in the world and accounts for about 33 percent of global helium output. Helium is
China is clamping down on fertilizer exports to protect its domestic market, industry sources said, putting an additional strain on global markets that were already grappling with shortages caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran. China is among the largest fertilizer exporters — shipping more than US$13 billion of it last year — and it has a history of controlling exports to keep prices low for farmers. Shipments through the war-blocked Strait of Hormuz account for about one-third of the sea-borne supply. This month, Beijing banned exports of nitrogen-potassium fertilizer blends and certain phosphate varieties, sources said. The ban, which has not
Taiwan’s natural gas supply remains stable through the end of May, despite rising concerns about potential disruptions to Qatari liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies due to escalating conflicts in the Middle East, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. The ministry in a statement said that Taiwan has completed preparations for natural gas supply and shipping schedules through the end of May. It has also made plans to increase natural gas imports from regions outside the Middle East in June to ensure a stable supply, it added. Taiwan sources natural gas from 14 countries and is not solely dependent on the Middle East,
RSS