Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) board of directors has approved a plan to invest up to ￥18.6 billion (US$177.7 million) to set up a fully owned subsidiary in Japan to expand its 3D semiconductor material research, the company said yesterday.
The subsidiary is to begin operations this year, company spokeswoman Nina Kao (高孟華) said.
The announcement comes amid escalating geographic tensions worldwide, and highlighted TSMC’s strategic importance in global supply chains.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
The Japanese government has reportedly been coaxing TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to build a factory in Japan.
Japan-based clients contributed about 5 percent to TSMC’s NT$1.34 trillion (US$47.2 billion) revenue last year, company data showed.
The Nikkei Shimbun on Monday reported that TSMC is planning to invest about ￥20 billion to set up a research and development facility in Ibaraki Prefecture, while also looking at establishing a new company in Japan.
The new facility would focus on advanced semiconductor packaging and testing, the report said, adding that TSMC is considering installing a production line in Japan.
TSMC did not comment on the Nikkei report.
The board yesterday approved capital appropriation of US$11.79 billion for next quarter, which would be used mainly for factory construction, and installing and upgrading advanced technology capacity, as well as research and development, TSMC said.
To finance its capacity expansion and related expenditures on pollution prevention, the board approved a plan to issue local unsecured corporate bonds of up to NT$120 billion, and to act as a guarantor to its subsidiary TSMC Global Ltd’s issuance of US dollar-denominated senior unsecured corporate bonds of up to US$4.5 billion, it said.
The board also approved a proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$2.5 per share. That represents about a 45 percent payout ratio based on earnings per share of NT$5.51 during the quarter ending on Dec. 31.
It also approved the payment of performance-based bonuses and profit-sharing rewards of approximately NT$69.51 billion to employees for last year’s work.
Earlier yesterday, TSMC said that its revenue expanded 22.2 percent to NT$126.75 billion last month, compared with NT$103.68 billion a year earlier.
Last month’s revenue was the highest level since September last year.
On a monthly basis, revenue rose 8 percent from NT$117.37 billion.
The US Department of State yesterday criticized Beijing over its misrepresentation of the US’ “one China” policy in the latest diplomatic salvo between the two countries over a bid by Taiwan to regain its observer status at the World Health Assembly, the decisionmaking body of the WHO. “The PRC [People’s Republic of China] continues to publicly misrepresent U.S. policy,” Department of State spokesman Ned Price wrote on Twitter. “The United States does not subscribe to the PRC’s ‘one China principle’ — we remain committed to our longstanding, bipartisan one China policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, Three Joint Communiques, and
FATES LINKED: The US president said that sanctions on Russia over Ukraine must exact a ‘long-term price,’ because otherwise ‘what signal does that send to China?’ US President Joe Biden yesterday vowed that US forces would defend Taiwan militarily in the event of a Chinese attack in his strongest statement to date on the issue. Beijing is already “flirting with danger,” Biden said following talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, in which the pair agreed to monitor Chinese naval activity and joint Chinese-Russian exercises. Asked if Washington was willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan, he replied: “Yes.” “That’s the commitment we made,” Biden said. “We agreed with the ‘one China’ policy, we signed on to it ... but the idea that it can be
‘TOO RESTRICTIVE’: Ending US sales of weapons that do not fall under the category of ‘asymmetric’ would hamper Taiwan’s defense against China, two business groups said Taiwan’s weapons procurement decisions are made based on its needs, and are not influenced by individual arms dealers, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday after two US business groups questioned a US official’s comment on arms sales to Taiwan. US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Regional Security Mira Resnick told the business groups via video link on Saturday that Washington would adjust the types of weapons sold to Taiwan and end “most arms sales to Taiwan that do not fall under the category of ‘asymmetric.’” The American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan and the US-Taiwan Business Council on Monday
Local COVID-19 cases are expected to continue rising in the upcoming week, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it reported a record-high 85,310 new domestic cases and 41 deaths. Daily case numbers had remained in the 60,000s for the past six days before surging about 30 percent yesterday, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, said the number of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests conducted on Tuesday also marked a record-high of 112,915, with a
RSS