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Roadmakers can expect a sharp rise in chip supply in the coming weeks, said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which indicated that global shortages could have overcome its most crippling stage.
During the first six months of 2021, TSMC increased its production of microcontrol units, a major component used for automotive electronics, by 30% compared to the same period last year, the contract chip maker said on Thursday largest in the world to investors. MCU production is expected to be 60% higher year-round than in 2020, he added.
“Through these actions, we expect the shortage to be greatly reduced for TSMC customers starting this quarter,” said CC Wei, CEO of TSMC.
TSMC’s announcement comes after more than nine months of severe chip shortages, which disrupted global car production. He crisis it began after vehicle manufacturers placed chip orders last fall, leaving them without supplies when demand rose sharply weeks later.
Analysts have recently raised their outlook for automotive chip supplies.
IHS Markit said in a note in late June that it expected the outage to be reduced in the third quarter. “We expect an improvement over the first or second quarter because the situation is better understood and great efforts are being made to improve visibility within a very complex supply chain,” he wrote. “We see evidence of this in some of General Motors’ more relaxed announcements that are back in operation earlier than originally planned and From Toyota permanent commitment to its planning “.
JPMorgan analysts estimated that production cuts by global vehicle manufacturers related to semiconductor shortages would fall to 399,000 vehicles in the third quarter compared to 1.9 million in the second quarter.
To an extent that will also increase confidence in long-term security of supply, TSMC said it was willing to continue investing in mature production technology, on which automatic chip supplies are primarily based.
“Our most recent strategy in mature nodes is to work more closely with our customers to create specialized solutions; we hope that this structural demand will continue, “said Mark Liu, president of TSMC.” We will focus our investment on specialties. For the manufacture of green area expansion, we do not rule it out, as long as demand can justify it. “
United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), TSMC’s smallest Taiwanese rival, earlier this year announced a significant expansion of its manufacturing capacity to 28 nanometers, one of the most important nodes for the production of car chips.
TSMC’s willingness to reinvest in older technologies, which moves away from its past practice, is part of a broader strategic adjustment. Liu also announced that the company is ready to invest in more new manufacturing plants, or factories, in different countries in Taiwan.
“There are several projects still in the planning phase,” Liu said, adding that the investment in any of these would exceed the $ 100 billion in capital expenditures that TSMC has earmarked for the next three years.
The company said it would not rule out expanding its manufacturing base in Arizona beyond the $ 12 billion plant that would begin production in 2024. TSMC also announced that it was doing due diligence on the proposal to build a semiconductor factory in Japan, a country before only research and development had been considered.
Liu said that while TSMC would continue its policy of initiating cutting-edge technology production in Taiwan and maintain R&D there, the need for security in semiconductor infrastructure made a more diverse manufacturing footprint necessary “to maintain and to improve our competitive advantage and better serve our customers in a new geopolitical environment ”.
TSMC reported net income of US $ 134.4 billion (US $ 4.82 million) during the second quarter on Thursday, up 11.2% year-on-year. He forecast revenue to rise 21% to 23% in the third quarter, a slight acceleration from the second quarter.
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