The World Is Dangerously Dependent on Taiwan for Semiconductors

[Daniel Nenni]

More semiconductor misinformation from Bloomberg:

The World Is Dangerously Dependent on Taiwan for Semiconductors

(Bloomberg) -- As China pushes the world to avoid official dealings with Taiwan, leaders across the globe are realizing just how dependent they’ve become on the island democracy.Taiwan, which China regards as a province, is being courted for its capacity to make leading-edge computer chips...

finance.yahoo.com

Have they always been sensationalizing or is this something new?

 

[Portland]

Silicon shield is real. It was the case with Israel against boycotts and sanctions as well as Taiwan's independence. In an ideal world manufacturing would be in more stable regions but not enough people there that will do those jobs.

In a conventional war Taiwan has more of a chance of winning a conflict than given credit for. It would be dependent of how effective the lehat missile would be shooting down fighter aircraft as well as missile defense. If both would work well enough China would have problems.

 

[count]

Side note on Japan, the Japanese automakers look really vulnerable to me.

 

[horscht(i)]

More semiconductor misinformation from Bloomberg:

The World Is Dangerously Dependent on Taiwan for Semiconductors

(Bloomberg) -- As China pushes the world to avoid official dealings with Taiwan, leaders across the globe are realizing just how dependent they’ve become on the island democracy.Taiwan, which China regards as a province, is being courted for its capacity to make leading-edge computer chips...

finance.yahoo.com

Have they always been sensationalizing or is this something new?

Could you elaborate where you see the misinformation?

 

[soAsian]

Could you elaborate where you see the misinformation?

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

" Because of carmakers’ “just-in-time” manufacturing model, their suppliers worried about quick inventory buildups and canceled orders originally planned for foundries in the first half of 2020, the people said. At the same time, foundries began seeing a surge in demand for gadget chips after Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. and Chinese brands prepped an avalanche of 5G devices including the iPhone 12, which require as much as 40% more silicon content as 4G handsets.One contract chipmaker notified all its customers in the third quarter that it might be time for them to place more orders as it anticipated a rebound in demand, but automotive clients demurred and ended up being the last ones to seek more capacity, one of the people said."

Not sure if its misinformation but auto makers did this to themselves. its really not even a Taiwan (TSMC) problem.

having say that...there's a needs for another foundry like TSMC

 

[horscht(i)]

I agree that the current crisis in the automotive market can - for the most part - be attributed to the different logics of automotive procurement versus semicon wafer capacity and need for utilization. Absolutely.
The article Danni posted does not seem to assign guilt to TSMC, though. It just points out that TSMC capabilities are a highly critical resource to everyone on this planet.

Conclusion: Yes, a second foundry with "TSMCish" capabilities is needed. In this respect, having TSMC build a fab in the US might well be the one positive policy during the Trump administration.

 

[Daniel Nenni]

Could you elaborate where you see the misinformation?

Just to start:

"Taiwan’s role in the world economy largely existed below the radar, until it came to recent prominence as the auto industry suffered shortfalls in chips used for everything from parking sensors to reducing emissions. With carmakers including Germany’s Volkswagen AG, Ford Motor Co. of the U.S. and Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. forced to halt production and idle plants, Taiwan’s importance has suddenly become too big to ignore."

The world has been dependent on Taiwan for foundry based logic wafers for may years so how is this below the radar and why is this suddenly a "dangerous situation"? This is chicken little journalism, pure and simple.

For the record: TSMC experienced a 27% surge in automotive in Q4 2020. In Q3 2020 automotive was down 23%, in Q2 2020 automotive was down 13%, and in Q1 2020 automotive was down 1%. So, just a rough calculation, automotive ordered 10% less wafers from TSMC in 2020. Where is the shortage again? Sounds more to me like the automotive companies are guilty of bad planning.

Bottom line: TSMC builds/maintains capacity based on wafer agreements. Clearly there is a wafer agreement problem here if there is a shortage of automotive chips after a down year. Or there is a chicken little journalism problem.

And notice that Tesla is not on the list even though they have a very high chip content. The semiconductor industry started the transition from 8" wafers to the more cost effective 12" wafers at .13micron. Unfortunately old school automotive did not get that memo and still use mature nodes. Tesla and the other leading edge automotive companies are buying 12" wafers. Just another reason Tesla is disrupting the automotive dinosaurs and for that the semiconductor industry should be grateful!