| | | Government subsidies crucial for new TSMC fab establishment in US
Monica Chen, Taipei; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES
Wednesday 10 June 2020
TSMC is in talks with the US government about relevant subsidies for its new wafer fab in Arizona so that the foundry is able to implement the investment plan, said TSMC chairman Mark Liu at a press event right after the company's shareholders meeting on June 9.
Liu also talked about challenges facing TSMC as well as the market outlook this year. The following are selected questions and answers between the press and Liu.
Q: Why did TSMC decide to express its intention of building an advanced wafer fab in Arizona? And why Arizona? Will you also encourage your supply-chain partners to set up production lines there?
A: As we mentioned before, the US facility not only enables us to better support our customers and partners, it also gives us more opportunities to attract global talent. We chose Arizona because TSMC has reached a mutual understanding with the US federal government and the State of Arizona, which will be committed to supporting our new fab establishment.
Plans for the Arizona facility are definitely in line with TSMC's interests. Nevertheless, we are still in talks with the US government about relevant subsidies and support enabling TSMC to run the fab at costs on about similar levels of TSMC's Taiwan-based plants.
TSMC's Arizona plant will be targeting orders from chip vendors worldwide. The facility may not work directly for the US government, but its customers might cover their military suppliers.
If TSMC is able to conduct its investment plan in Arizona, we believe that we will be contributing positively to the local high-end IC industry cluster. We may also invite our suppliers to join us in the cluster. Gas, photoresist and other material manufacturers have already expressed their interests.
Q: Would you talk about challenges facing TSMC, as new US trade sanctions against Huawei may hurt your business.
A: TSMC serves as "everyone's foundry," and we ensure our technology leadership gains the trust of our clients. The ongoing US-China trade war does impact some businesses and could bring a shift to some market landscape. For TSMC, we have a broad customer base which allows us to grow from some customers' market share gains while seeing orders drop from other customers that suffer from losses.
TSMC may see orders cut from its major clients suffering from the ongoing trade tensions between the US and China, but with our advanced technology leadership and manufacturing, TSMC is confident we can quickly fill any order gap.
Q: Will TSMC apply for permission to continue supplying Huawei with chips?
A: Like other suppliers, TSMC is still studying the new chip export rules set forth by the US government on Huawei and how the rules will be implemented. Of course, TSMC does not rule out applying for an exemption. As the rules are still at their interpretation stage, we are still evaluating all consequences.
Q: Will TSMC's investment plan in Arizona affect your Nanjing fab business in China?
A: The Chinese government is aware that TSMC is an international company that serves the world market. At TSMC's Nanjing fab, we are on track to expand our monthly capacity to 20,000 12-inch wafers. Our Nanjing operations have already attracted orders from many customers locally.
TSMC continues to conduct its R&D principally in Taiwan, no matter where our fabrication lines will be located.
Q: Would you share with us TSMC's market outlook for the second half of 2020. Will TSMC make revisions to its sales growth and capex outlook this year?
A: The coronavirus pandemic has had economic impacts on many countries. TSMC is lucky that our headquarters and main operations have not been affected much, thanks to effective disease control in Taiwan. But we are aware that the pandemic's impact on our customers and target markets.
The pandemic is being brought under control, but it is unlikely a V-shaped recovery will take place in the world economy. Both supply and demand may not immediately return to pre-coronavirus levels. In my opinion, a U- or L-shape recovery will be more likely.
The high-tech industry should be far less affected by the coronavirus than other sectors like tourism. A high level of output can still be maintained in a remote working environment.
TSMC currently has no plans to revise its sales growth and capex outlook this year. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, TSMC continues to make progress in the development of our advanced process manufacturing as well as our capacity expansion plans.
I'd also like to mention that for TSMC's 5nm process offering, we plan to roll out not only N5 and N5 Plus but also N4 - another enhanced version of TSMC's 5nm technology. We are already in talks about potential orders for these 5nm process nodes. Besides, TSMC will be stepping up its development of gallium nitride (GaN) process technology, which is now in production in small volume. The new TSMC GaN process technology is expected to be widely adopted in the future.
digitimes.com |
|
