As Taiwan plays a key role in global supply chains, local semiconductor companies should be cautious in responding to US plans to further curb exports of advanced chips to China, Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) said yesterday.
Huang’s comments came in the wake of media reports that US President Joe Biden’s administration is considering broadening its ban on US exports of artificial intelligence chips and semiconductor equipment to China, aiming to obstruct Beijing’s progress in enhancing its chip development and manufacturing capabilities.
“The whole world needs chip supply from Taiwan. The supply chain cannot be disrupted abruptly,” Huang said. “Besides, Taiwan maintains a complementary relationship with China.”
Photo: CNA
Taiwanese manufacturers such as Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦) and Wistron Corp (緯創) assemble computers in China, but the chips they use are from Taiwan, he said.
Likewise, Apple Inc purchases Taiwan-made chips to manufacture iPhones in China, he added.
The US restrictions would have a mixed impact on Taiwanese companies, Huang said.
Taiwanese firms would obey US rules and its curbs on shipping advanced chips and sensitive technologies to China, but they would need a grace period of a year to seek alternative solutions, he said.
Under such a complex geopolitical environment, Taiwanese companies should carefully evaluate the pros and cons before making a decision and find solutions to prevent supply chain disruptions, he said.
Commenting on the latest inventory-driven semiconductor slowdown, Huang said investors have “overly reacted” to the ups and downs of the industry.
Semiconductor demand has come down from a peak driven by strong demand for PCs to cope with new work and lifestyles due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the past two to three years, he said.
Powerchip shares have tumbled amid a spate of corporate warnings about slowing demand for chips. The stock yesterday ended down 1.25 percent at NT$31.60 in Taipei trading.
The company, which makes power management ICs, dismissed the rumors, saying that most customers were adjusting their inventories.
Powerchip’s revenue surged about 40 percent to NT$55.71 billion (US$1.79 billion) in the first eight months of the year, compared with NT$39.82 billion in the same period last year.
The semiconductor industry would experience a mild recovery after supply chain inventory drops to a reasonable level through December and a brief dip caused by surging inflation, Huang said, adding that he was confident about the local semiconductor industry’s long-term prospects.
The production value of the local semiconductor industry surpassed NT$4 trillion for the first time last year, rising 26.7 percent from a year earlier to NT$4.1 trillion, Vice Premier Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) said yesterday at the opening ceremony of the Semicon Taiwan trade show at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center’s Hall 1.
Taiwan has played a critical role in the global semiconductor industry on the back of a well-built industry cluster and its lead in advanced processes, Shen said.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary