Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that the construction of a planned 12-inch wafer plant in Kaohsiung would start later this year.
The chipmaker’s comments came after the Kaohsiung City Government invited the company to attend a groundbreaking ceremony on Sunday at the Nanzih Technology Industrial Park (楠梓科技產業園區), where the new plant is to be built.
The park would sit on the former site of a naphtha cracking plant owned by state-owned oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油).
Photo courtesy of the Kaohsiung City Government Economic Development Bureau
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) yesterday did not confirm whether work on the Nanzih industrial park would begin on Sunday, but said it would start this month.
The city government said in a statement that TSMC’s presence in the industrial park is expected to help the city establish a semiconductor cluster within five years, which would boost high-end semiconductor technology development and cultivate a talent pool for the industry.
The semiconductor supply chain in Kaohsiung is expected to create more than 45,000 jobs, and speed up the pace of development not only in the manufacturing sector, but also in the service and commercial sectors, it said.
The world’s largest contract chipmaker unveiled its plans for the Kaohsiung plant in November last year.
The plant is to use the advanced 7-nanometer process and the mature 28-nanometer process to produce chips, with production scheduled to begin in 2024.
Chips made using the 7-nanometer process are expected to be used in emerging technologies such as high-performance computing devices, while chips made with the 28-nanometer process would likely be destined for automotive electronic applications, analysts said.
While TSMC has not disclosed any financial terms for the new facility, analysts said it could cost NT$200 billion to NT$300 billion (US$6.67 billion to US$10 billion).
The proposed plant passed an environmental impact assessment in April. It is expected to create 1,500 jobs, with an annual production value of NT$157.6 billion.
The city government said that since Chen assumed the post of Kaohsiung mayor in August 2020 after winning a by-election, the city had as of the end of April attracted NT$498.1 billion in investments.
Other major technology companies, such as Win Semiconductors Corp (穩懋半導體) and Germany-based Merck Group, have pledged to invest in Kaohsiung.
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
Taiwan is open to joining a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) program if one is created, but on the condition that countries provide delivery even in a scenario where there is a conflict with China, an energy department official said yesterday. While Taiwan’s priority is to have enough LNG at home, the nation is open to exploring potential strategic reserves in other countries such as Japan or South Korea, Energy Administration Deputy Director-General Chen Chung-hsien (陳崇憲) said. While the LNG market does not have a global reserve for emergencies like that of oil, the concept has been raised a few times —
AI-FUELED DEMAND: The company has been benefiting from the skyrocketing prices for DRAM chips amid the AI frenzy, especially its core product — DDR4 DRAM chips DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday reported that its revenue for the first quarter surged 582.91 percent to NT$49.09 billion (US$1.54 billion) from NT$7.19 billion a year earlier, as the supply crunch caused chip price spikes. Last quarter’s figure is the highest on record. On a quarterly basis, revenue jumped 63.14 percent from NT$30.09 billion, the company said. In January, Nanya Technology expected global DRAM supply scarcity to continue through the first half of 2028, thanks to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) forecast prices of standard DRAM chips would rise between 58 percent and 63
RSS