The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) announced an ambitious new NT$700 billion (US$20 billion) expansion plan yesterday, which includes six new chipmaking facilities in Taiwan.
"As long as corporate enterprise and the government continue to work together, Taiwan will maintain its competitive edge," TSMC Chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀) said yesterday while welcoming President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to the Tainan Science-based Industrial Park.
Chen called the investment plans proof of the nation's competitiveness and urged other firms to follow TSMC's example by maintaining the core of their manufacturing, design and R&D operations in Taiwan while expanding worldwide.
The nation's unemployment rate hit 5.26 percent last month, the highest since the government started keeping track 23 years ago.
"TSMC is determined to construct fabs in China and other major markets around the world," Chang said. "Taiwan, where TSMC was founded, will remain a vital base for TSMC's future investments."
The company has said in the past it would set up a sales office in Shanghai in the near term and build a chip plant there within the next two years.
The NT$700 billion TSMC plans to spend will go toward the construction of six new semiconductor wafer fabrication plants, or fabs, in Tainan and Hsinchu.
They will all be state-of-the-art 12-inch wafer manufacturing facilities. The company has invested a total of NT$260 billion over the past four years.
Chang yesterday also confirmed the resumption of work on the company's Fab 14 located in the Tainan science park.
Six months ago, TSMC halted the project due to fears that vibrations from a planned high-speed railway running through the park might impact the plant's sensitive microchip manufacturing equipment.
Earlier this year, a number of chip companies, including Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子), pulled out of agreements to build chip plants in Tainan due to the same fears.
Japanese trains purchased at the last minute over trains made by the German firm Siemens are expected to produce radically higher levels of vibration than the companies had anticipated, pundits charged at the time.
TSMC Vice Chairman Tseng Fan-cheng (
In May, TSMC assembled a team of experts that found that common engineering methods could be used to eliminate vibrations that may be caused by the planned railway.
TSMC plans to build at least six 12-inch wafer fabs in the Tainan science park, making the park a key element in the firm's future plans.
Taking that technology to China would be a violation of US law, as chipmaking equipment for 12-inch wafer plants is not allowed to be sold to companies planning on taking it to China due to defense concerns.
"Historically, TSMC has focused its investments in the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park," Chang said. "Going forward, the Tainan Science-based Industrial Park will be TSMC's most important site for future semiconductor fab construction in Taiwan."
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