Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last year saved almost 2 million tonnes of water as part of its efforts to fulfill its commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, the company’s financial disclosure report said.
To reach its zero emissions goal, TSMC has been taking action to broaden its green influence and drive industry toward low-carbon sustainability, chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) said in the company’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures report released last week.
TSMC saved 1.927 million tonnes of water last year by adopting measures such as reducing water consumption by facility systems, increasing wastewater recycling by facilities and decreasing water discharge from the systems, the report said.
Photo: CNA
Last year, it also invested NT$1.6 billion (US$57.69 million) in water conservation and recycling equipment, and spent an additional NT$1.2 billion on equipment operation and maintenance, it said.
By 2030, TSMC aims to reduce the amount of water it uses by 30 percent from 2010, the report said, adding that its water consumption last year fell 8.9 percent from 2010.
After Taiwan experienced a major water shortage from the end of last year to May, TSMC compiled statistics for drought risk assessments in the report, which showed that from 1986 to 2005 the longest Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County had gone without rain was 40 days, while for Taichung it was 52 days and for Tainan 62 days.
The number of days Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County, Taichung and Tainan would go without rain in 2035 is forecast to rise 4.15 percent, 2.42 percent and 2.28 percent respectively from 2016, the company said.
From 2081 to 2100, the longest stretch without precipitation in Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County could increase 14.44 percent from the 1985-to-2005 period, and it could grow 11.33 percent for Taichung and 10.73 percent for Tainan, it said.
If a drought occurs every 10 years, it could cause an average reduction of 0.7 to 1.1 percent in TSMC’s annual operating revenue, the company said.
As water shortages in Taiwan are likely to worsen, TSMC said it has also established a comprehensive water monitoring mechanism to regularly check the status of water supplies in the country.
The company is improving its water conservation measures, increasing the recycling rate of process wastewater and establishing comprehensive monitoring mechanisms for water supply, the report said.
It is also expanding the use of reclaimed water, and preparing water trucks to minimize the effect of water shortages on operations and eliminate production interruptions, it said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
A TAIWAN DEAL: TSMC is in early talks to fully operate Intel’s US semiconductor factories in a deal first raised by Trump officials, but Intel’s interest is uncertain Broadcom Inc has had informal talks with its advisers about making a bid for Intel Corp’s chip-design and marketing business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Nothing has been submitted to Intel and Broadcom could decide not to pursue a deal, according to the Journal. Bloomberg News earlier reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is in early talks for a controlling stake in Intel’s factories at the request of officials at US President Donald Trump’s administration, as the president looks to boost US manufacturing and maintain the country’s leadership in critical technologies. Trump officials raised the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
CHIP BOOM: Revenue for the semiconductor industry is set to reach US$1 trillion by 2032, opening up opportunities for the chip pacakging and testing company, it said ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, yesterday launched a new advanced manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, aiming to meet growing demand for emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US$300 million facility is a critical step in expanding ASE’s global footprint, offering an alternative for customers from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China to assemble and test chips outside of Taiwan amid efforts to diversify supply chains. The plant, the company’s fifth in Malaysia, is part of a strategic expansion plan that would more than triple