National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) today said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) could benefit from new US tariffs.
US President Donald Trump announced 100-percent tariffs on semiconductor imports, with exemptions for companies that already have or are in the process of building production facilities in the US.
TSMC is expected to be relatively unscathed as it has US factories, so key customers such as Nvidia are unlikely to face increased tariff costs for US-made chips.
Photo copied by Wu Hsin-tien
Nvidia also reportedly plans to invest hundreds of billions of US dollars in the US.
TSMC did not immediately reply to a request for comment, and a Nvidia spokesperson declined to comment.
“At the present time, we are optimistic towards them [TSMC],” Liu said today.
As for Trump’s comments on Tuesday that TSMC would increase its investment to US$300 billion, Liu said that it was not discussed and that this outlook is based on the already-announced investment of US$165 billion.
Other Taiwanese firms that qualify for exemptions include Sino-American Silicon Products Inc (SAS, 中美晶), through its facility in Texas, and United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), through its collaboration with Intel.
Liu made his comments at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Economics Committee, where lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties questioned him about tariffs.
In response to a question from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) about the new 100-percent tariffs, Liu said that the total impact is “not as big as imagined,” once TSMC and SAS are removed from the equation.
TSMC has factories in the US already not subject to tariffs, which is a positive for the company, Liu added.
The industry as a whole has three options for how to respond to tariffs: building factories in the US, like TSMC; acquiring manufacturing facilities through mergers and acquisitions, like SAS; and collaborating with US firms, like UMC, Liu said.
In response to questions about what would happen to small and medium-sized businesses without the ability to invest in the US, Liu said the government is launching two strategies.
The first is short-term support through a NT$95-billion (US$3.185 billion) special budget to help manage the immediate impact of tariffs, he said.
The second is focused on more longer-term planning to strengthen the industry by helping them connect to global markets, expand domestic demand and assist with AI transformation, Liu said.
Additional reporting by Reuters
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) today said that if South Korea does not reply appropriately to its request to correct Taiwan’s name on its e-Arrival card system before March 31, it would take corresponding measures to alter how South Korea is labeled on the online Taiwan Arrival Card system. South Korea’s e-Arrival card system lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in the “point of departure” and “next destination” fields. The ministry said that it changed the nationality for South Koreans on Taiwan’s Alien Resident Certificates from “Korea” to “South Korea” on March 1, in a gesture of goodwill and based on the
RSS