TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) will prioritize car chip production if it can further increase capacity, Taiwan’s economy ministry told Reuters amid a global shortage that has hampered car production.
A ministry official said Minister Wang Mei-hua spoke with the company’s senior executives on Sunday about the issue.
TSMC told the ministry that it will “optimize” the chip production process to make it more efficient and will give priority to car chip production if it can further increase capacity, the ministry said.
TSMC, the world’s largest chip maker, said the current production capacity is complete, but assured the ministry that “if production can be increased by optimizing production capacity, it will work with the government to consider car chips as an application.” primary ”.
In a statement to Reuters, TSMC referred to comments by its chief executive CC Wei on a winning call this month.
“Apart from continuously maximizing the use of our existing capacity, Dr. Wei also confirmed at the investor conference that we work closely with customers and move some of their mature nodes to more advanced nodes, where we have a better ability to support, ”the company said.
Germany has called on Taiwan to persuade Taiwanese manufacturers to help reduce the shortage of semiconductor chips in the automotive sector, which is hindering its growing economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The request was made by a letter from German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier to Wang.
The ministry said it would wait until it received the letter before deciding whether to contact TSMC again. Automakers around the world are shutting down assembly lines because of semiconductor delivery problems, which in some cases have been exacerbated by the former Trump administration’s actions against key Chinese chip factories.
MANY CARMAKERS AFFECTED
The shortage affected Volkswagen, Ford Motor Co., Subaru Corp., Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co. Ltd, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and other automakers.
The ministry told Reuters that it had received requests from both the United States and the European Union through “diplomatic channels” late last year, as well as from Germany and Japan this year.
He said that in the second quarter of last year, car companies reduced orders to TSMC, which in turn transferred capacity to other customers, but in the second half of the year the demand for car chips returned.
“Americans expressed their expectations at the end of last year,” the ministry said.
“At the moment, everyone is talking to each other through diplomatic channels, including TSMC. Everyone’s hands are tied to order, but from the government’s perspective we will try to help as much as we can for our important allies. “
A senior official with Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry told Reuters that the Japanese carmakers’ association and TSMC had already been in contact, and the ministry also contacted the de facto Japanese embassy in Taipei to ask for their support. .
The official added that it is mainly a private sector exchange, so the government is limited in what it can do.
In 2020, automated chips accounted for only 3% of TSMC’s sales, with 48% for smartphones and 33% for high-performance chips.
In the fourth quarter, TSMC’s chip chip sales increased 27% from the previous quarter, but accounted for only 3% of total quarterly sales.
A senior Taiwanese government official familiar with the matter told Reuters that he could not do much.
“They gave up orders for various reasons when demand was low due to the pandemic. But now they want to stimulate their production. ”
Reporting by Jeanny Kao and Yimou Lee; Additional reporting by Kaori Kaneko in Tokyo; Written by Ben Blanchard; Edited by Christian Schmollinger, Shri Navaratnam and Raju Gopalakrishnan