The government is looking at providing Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) with preferential rates for power and water usage, as well as a plot of land, from as early as next June, should it consider building its 1.4-nanometer fab in the Central Taiwan Science Park’s (中部科學園區) Taichung Park (台中園區), a source said yesterday.
TSMC on Oct. 17 said it had dropped its plan to build a fab for the production of next-generation chips in the Longtan (龍潭) section of Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) amid protests by residents over the government’s appropriation of privately owned land for industrial use.
The Executive Yuan recently convened a meeting to discuss the issue, with Vice Premier Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) being briefed by the National Science and Technology Council and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
The Longtan section of the park was expected to expropriate 158.59 hectares so that semiconductor-related companies would have enough space to set up there, the source said.
Despite TSMC’s announcement that it was backing out of the Longtan plan, the section would still be dedicated to semiconductors, the source said, adding that the Executive Yuan has given the council, the Hsinchu Science Park Administration and the Taoyuan City Government the task of organizing talks with the Longtan protesters and providing them with a satisfactory solution.
If neither side can reach an amicable agreement, the Executive Yuan is considering the possibility of shrinking the area of land to be expropriated to exclude those who are the most opposed to the project, they said.
TSMC was initially eyeing the Longtan section and the Taichung Park, hoping to have fabs in both, the source said.
The discrepancy in the amount of land allotted to the two projects — TSMC had planned to use 158.59 hectares at Longtan and 90 hectares at the Taichung Park — should be manageable, the source said.
However, Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) had previously said that another fab could see TSMC’s power usage increase from 15 percent to 38 percent of the municipality’s power, the source said.
Lu added that TSMC fabs would probably use up to 9 percent of the city’s water supply, they said.
If the company sets up its 1.4-nanometer fab in Taichung, it would require support from the Taichung City Government, the source said.
The city government in February passed the environmental assessment for Taichung Park’s second-phase expansion plan, and in August passed an urban planning project to accommodate it, they said.
After the National Land Management Agency receives the Taichung City Government’s revised plans, the Ministry of the Interior is planning to hold a meeting on Nov. 2 to assess the necessity of land expropriation before the report is forwarded to the Urban Planning Committee for review.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS