TSMC to Ramp up Wafer Production through Heavy Investments

SHANGHAI, Nov 10 - TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) recently released two major expansion projects, and will build new factories in Taiwan, China and Japan at the same time, both scheduled to start construction next year and commence production in 2024.

Among them, the new plant in Japan will be located in Kumamoto with 22/28nm process in initial stage. Its monthly capacity covers 45,000 units of 12-inch wafers. The initial investment is estimated at approximately US$7 billion and has gained support from the Japanese government. While Sony plans to invest US$500 million and acquire no more than 20% equity.

The new plant in Taiwan is located in Kaohsiung and will mainly focus on 7/28nm process. The exact amount of investment has not been disclosed. But due to the advanced technique, the industry estimates that the investment will reach US$10 billion.

The combined investments of these two plants are expected to total US$17 billion, much higher than the amount previously invested in TSMC's new plant in Arizona, US (US$12 billion).

Based on the quarterly data, as downstream demand continued to rise, the capacity utilisation rates and wafer shipments of major foundries kept rising. TSMC expects its production capacity to remain tight next year, while UMC's capacity utilisation rate remains above 100%. SMIC, on the other hand, admits that even if the capacity utilisation rate exceeds 100%, it still cannot meet customer demand. And the plants in Beijing and Shenzhen are actively expanding production.

The peak of new capacity release will come in the second half of 2022 and 2023.