Customer demand would remain resilient through the first half of next year, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said yesterday, denying speculation that orders would be cut due to overbuilt inventory.
The Hsinchu-based chipmaker said that US-China trade disputes and the COVID-19 pandemic have changed semiconductor supply chains and redefined overbooking, or double booking.
Building higher inventory has “become a new norm for supply chains,” TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) told reporters on the sidelines of an international forum celebrating 40th anniversary of the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), when asked about growing concern among investors over inventory corrections.
Photo: Hung Yu-fang, Taipei Times
It would not be appropriate to use the previous standard to gauge supply chain inventories, Liu said.
As overbooking is not an issue, TSMC does not expect a significant reduction in factory utilization in the first two quarters of next year, Liu said in response to a question about concerns over a 20 percent cut in the utilization rate for 5-nanometer chips.
“We do not see that happening,” Liu said.
Photo: CNA
“The first half of next year will be a much better period than seasonal” cycles suggest, he said.
TSMC said in October that its customers’ overall inventory would remain above seasonal levels for a longer period, because they are concerned about potential supply disruptions amid uncertainties.
Inventory would be sustained at a high level for a longer period, the company said.
Photo: CNA
TSMC declined to answer a question about chip price hikes next year.
The Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported that the chipmaker for next year has scrapped a long-time practice of making an allowance of 3 percent for customers ordering 12-inch wafers, as its factories have reached full capacity.
Asked about reports that former TSMC joint chief operating officer Chiang Shang-yi (蔣尚義) is to rejoin Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯國際), China’s biggest chipmaker, Liu said that he respects Chiang’s rights to pursue his own career.
Chiang has accepted SMIC’s offer and would serve as its vice chairman from next month, Shanghai-based news firm Voice wrote on WeChat yesterday.
Chiang told reporters that it would be easier to develop advanced chip packaging technologies and integrated circuit blocks, called chiplets, at SMIC.
Chiang said that he tried to develop those technologies when he was with Wuhan Hongxin Semiconductor Co (HSMC, 武漢弘芯).
However, he resigned as chief executive officer of the Chinese firm last month due to the company’s financial woes.
To mark the Hsinchu Science Park’s anniversary, the government presented awards to TSMC founder Morris Chang (張忠謀), United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) honorary chairman Robert Tsao (曹興誠), MediaTek Inc (聯發科) chairman Tsai Ming-kai (蔡明介) and Acer Inc (宏碁) founder Stan Shih (施振榮).
Tsao and Chang have been avoiding each other for decades due to a feud over who invented the foundry business model in the 1970s.
Prior to giving his acceptance speech, Tsao walked up to Chang and shook hands with his rival.
Tso said that the government should strive to solve two major issues that semiconductor firms operating fabs at the Hsinchu Science Park face: water shortages and high demand for electricity.
He said that nuclear power plants should be restored to reduce carbon emissions, given the limited availability of renewable energy sources.
Building more desalination facilities would boost water supplies, he said.
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
J-6 REMODEL: The converted drones are part of Beijing’s expanding mix of airpower weapons, including bombers with stand-off missiles and UAV swarms, the report said China has stationed obsolete supersonic fighters converted to attack drones at six air bases close to the Taiwan Strait, a report published this month by the Arlington, Virginia-based Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies said. Satellite imagery of the airfields from the institute’s “China Airpower Tracker” shows what appear to be lines of stubby, swept-winged aircraft matching the shape of J-6 fighters that first flew with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force in the 1960s. Since their conversion to drones, the aircraft have been identified at five bases in China’s Fujian Province and one in Guangdong Province, the report said. J.
China used fake LinkedIn profiles to harvest sensitive data from NATO and EU institutions by soliciting information from staff, a European security source said on Friday. The operation, allegedly orchestrated by the Chinese Ministry of State Security, targeted dozens of employees at the military alliance or EU organizations through fictitious accounts, the source said, confirming reports in French and Belgian media. Posing as recruiters on the online professional networking platform, Chinese spies would initially request paid reports before later soliciting non-public or even classified information. One particularly active fake profile used the name “Kevin Zhang,” claiming to be the head
RSS