Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that another employee has tested positive for COVID-19, but that its operations are normal.
The Hsinchu-based chipmaker said that the employee had developed mild COVID-19 symptoms and was staying in New Taipei City.
The employee had not been in the office for several days, TSMC said, without specifying whether the employee worked at its headquarters at the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區).
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
More than 10 people who had close contact with the employee were quarantined, or were practicing self-health management, it added.
Since the Central Epidemic Command Center raised the COVID-19 alert to level 3 for the whole nation on Wednesday last week, TSMC has been operating in separate teams and working remotely from home on a rotating basis, while colleagues and vendors with long-term identification badges have not been moving between the company’s Hsinchu, Taichung and Tainan sites, to avoid cross infection, it said.
TSMC shares yesterday rose 0.34 percent to close at NT$585 in Taipei trading, after coming off a low of NT$581.
On Tuesday, the government-sponsored Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (產業情報研究所) said that TSMC accounts for about 70 percent of the global contract production of micro control units (MCUs) used in vehicles.
Integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) largely serve as the major suppliers of automotive chips and under their business model, the IDMs tend to outsource production to contract chipmakers such as TSMC, institute senior industry analyst Cheng Kai-an (鄭凱安) said.
An IDM is a semiconductor company that designs, manufactures and sells IC products.
As MCUs require more complicated production processes that lead to higher production costs, outsourcing has become a major strategy for IDMs, Cheng said.
In this environment, TSMC has secured a 60 to 70 percent share in the global MCU outsourcing market and plays a critical role in the global production of automotive chips at a time when major automakers are struggling to launch vehicle models due to a chip shortage, Cheng said.
The institute said that the top five IDMs supplying MCUs for automakers are the Netherlands’ NXP Semiconductors NV, Japan’s Renesas Electronics Corp, Germany’s Infineon Technologies AG, and the US’ Texas Instruments Inc and Microchip Technology Inc.
The five IDMs primarily outsource the production of MCUs that require advanced 28-nanometer to 65-nanometer processes, the institute added.
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