TSMC Chairman Deyin Liu said on Sunday (May 2) that he expects to be able to meet customers’ minimum demand for automotive chips by the end of June.
In an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” program, Liu said they heard about the chip shortage in December last year and tried to rush out as many chips as possible for automakers in January.
He said: “Now we think the schedule is two months ahead, and we expect to meet the minimum requirements of customers by the end of June.”
The shortage of automotive chips, which began in December last year, has plagued the global automotive industry. Some analysts believe that the reason for the shortage of automotive chips, one is because of underestimation of the rebound in automotive demand after the new crown virus epidemic; the second is because chip makers give priority to higher volume and more lucrative consumer electronics like smartphones.
As the world’s largest chip producer, TSMC had issued a statement in late January promising to reallocate production capacity to support the global automotive industry.
Asked if meeting the minimum requirements meant the shortage of automotive chips would end within two months, Liu denied it.
There is a time delay,” he said. Especially in the automotive chip sector, the supply chain is both long and complex. Supply takes about seven to eight months.”
In a Fox Business News television report Saturday, Martijn Rasser, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think tank, said whoever controls the design and production of these microchips will lead the 21st century. Rasser added: “By controlling Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, China will control the global market. They would have access to the world’s most advanced manufacturing capabilities and would be more valuable than controlling the world’s oil.”
Fox also quoted Russell as saying that China has been trying to get its hands on Taiwan’s chip manufacturing equipment, but so far has been unsuccessful. So you can easily imagine a scenario where Beijing decides it’s worth the risk and actually invades Taiwan to gain control of this important industry,” he said.
Tensions are currently rising in the Taiwan Strait, with the Communist Party of China (CPC) operating frequently around Taiwan recently, sending military aircraft to disturb the country in addition to the missile frigate Binzhou, which was spotted in northeastern Taiwan waters on Saturday.
A senior general in the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command warned in March, as he was leaving his post, that China could violate Taiwan within six years.
Taiwan’s chip industry is known as the “silicon shield”. The world needs the support of Taiwan’s high-tech industry,” Liu Deyin told CBS. So they won’t let a war happen in this region because it’s against the interest of every country in the world.”
When asked if the chip industry somehow guaranteed Taiwan’s security, Liu Deyin added that he could not comment on security issues. He added, “It’s a changing world. No one wants these things to happen.”
The Trump administration late last year added dozens of Chinese companies to its list of entities, including China’s largest chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International. The Biden administration has continued its tough stance on Chinese companies in the technology sector, with the U.S. announcing in April that it had placed seven Chinese companies on the entity list.
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