TSMC, known as“The island of God Mountain”, its Japanese Kumamoto factory mass-produced at the end of this year, again triggered the island for“Hollowing out Taiwan” concerns.
The third factory is intended to be built
On December 28, several Taiwanese media quoted Kyodo news agency of Japan as saying that Kimura, governor of Kumamoto Prefecture of Japan, revealed at a regular press conference on the 27th that he had recently received a notification from JASM, a joint venture company operating the Kumamoto Wafer factory of TSMC, kumamoto has“Started mass production” as planned this month. TSMC later confirmed that production at the Kumamoto plant had started in December as planned and that construction at the Kumamoto plant was expected to start in the first quarter of 2025 in an effort to 2027 production of more advanced 6NM chips by the end of the year.
Taiwan’s“Economic daily” 28, said TSMC overseas plant layout is the fastest Japanese plant. TSMC announced in 2021 that it would build a fab in Kikuy?, Kumamoto Prefecture. Construction began in April 2022, and the 2023 was completed in December. It opened in February. Kumamoto factory total investment of 1.3 trillion yen, the Japanese government subsidies 476 billion yen, mainly 12 to 28 nanometers of mature process logic chips, monthly production capacity also increased from the original target of 45,000 tablets to 55,000 tablets, and now the new plant on schedule, the first customers for the Sony Group and other large enterprises.
File Photo: 2024 February 23,2010, TSMC factory, Kumamoto, Japan. Visual China
TSMC KUMAMOTO-I manufactures imaging sensors and automotive semiconductors, while the second fab will support strategic customers in consumer, automotive, industrial and high performance computing (HPC)-related applications, the report said. When Kimura visited TSMC’s headquarters in August, he called on the Hsinchu Science and Industrial Park to consider the Kumamoto plant, the paper said. Foreign media disclosed in November that TSMC also intends to build Kumamoto three factory, specializing in the production of 3-nanometer chips. But Kimura admitted on December 27 that Kumamoto’s plans were still unclear and would take years to implement, depending on whether the first and second plants could operate effectively in the future.
Must“Root in Taiwan”
According to Taiwan’s industrial and commercial times on the 28th, Kumamoto’s expected production schedule“Gives a shot in the arm to TSMC, which has been exploring the international and overseas market in recent years”. Japan’s“Yomiuri Shimbun” said that according to the data released by the Kyushu Economic Survey Association of Japan, with TSMC set up a factory in Kumamoto, Japan in 2021, it is expected that in the 10 years from 2021 to 2030, the economic benefits for the Kyushu region will total about Y23,000 bn, up Y3,000 bn from the 2023 end forecast.
However, the island is very worried about the outflow of advanced technology will further hollow out Taiwan. There are comments that Japan through TSMC gradually master semiconductor manufacturing-related technology, and train a number of advanced semiconductor manufacturing personnel. Xie hanbing, a senior media person on the island, has analyzed that TSMC brings Kumamoto a big business opportunity, which is a strategic plan of the United States, that is, to spread the possible risks of the United States in the future. In the future, TSMC may invest in other places besides Germany. “Originally, the business opportunities were all in Taiwan, but then they disappeared and we couldn’t enjoy them ourselves.”.
According to a report on Taiwan’s Zhongshi news website, Liu Peizhen, director of the industry and economics database at the Taiwan Economic Research Institute, said earlier that if the semiconductor industry goes overseas to set up factories, it will definitely disperse Taiwan’s existing resources, in the past, 90% of the production capacity is in Taiwan, Taiwan’s chip production price has absolute advantage. She said that the first phase of TSMC’s investment in Japan will focus on mature processes such as 28 and 22 nanometers. In the future, if the Japanese side requests advanced processes under 7 nanometers, it will cause concern from all walks of life, after all, the advanced process must“Root in Taiwan” in order to retain foreign bargaining chips.
At the end of November, Wu Chengwen, chairman of Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Commission, said that the most advanced process for mass production of TSMC is currently 3 nanometers. According to TSMC’s release schedule, mass production of 2 nanometers is expected by the end of 2025, tSMC then moves on to the next stage of the new process, when it can discuss whether the 2-nanometer process will spread to other regions. Taiwan’s“Economy Minister”, Guo Zhihui, admitted that TSMC’s 2-nanometer chips would sooner or later be produced in the US. Zheng Zhengqian, a KMT legislator, said that TSMC continues to expand its plants in the United States, with the first plant producing 4-nanometer chips and the second plant producing 3-nanometer chips, the United States Department of Commerce said the third plant was a “Future advanced process”. “Will the A16-AMMETER-CLASS technology go out as well and eventually become TSMC’s most advanced technology in the US instead of Taiwan?”
There are political considerations
According to Taiwan’s“Industrial and commercial times” reported on December 30, TSMC legal person will be introduced on January 16,2025. According to corporate estimates, the 2024 focuses on five major issues: profit, capital expenditure in 2025, production timing of 2-nanometer process, price adjustment of contract manufacturing, and overseas distribution of the US, Japan and Europe, wei Zhe-jia, chairman of youguan TSMC, handed in his first annual report card since taking office in June. TSMC 2024 another operating record, with combined revenue of T $2,610 bn in the first 11 months, up 31.8 per cent year-on-year and a record high for the same period.
TSMC will hold a board meeting in the United States in February next year for the first time in its 37-year history, while its American plant is expected to produce in volume in the first quarter of next year, Taiwan’s want daily said Monday, there are clearly political reasons behind the delay in the opening ceremony scheduled for this month. To protect the island of Mount Kinabalu, which is increasingly Semiconductor industry to retain decision-making autonomy, the authorities need to enact a law preventing the flow of core technology to the US in order to prevent TSMC becoming a “Us-based company”. At the same time, it can not give up the mainland market, not only because of the large scale of the mainland market, but also because of the growth of enterprises, they must closely interact with customers in the technology and application aspects, which is the strength of the mainland technology industry. The article said that as a Export-oriented industrialization, the telecommunications and electronics industries accounted for more than 60 percent of Taiwan’s exports, and that if a large number of key semiconductor companies moved to the United States, they would not be able to maintain their market share in the mainland, would be fatal.