After the Hualien earthquake on the 3rd, TSMC issued several major messages to explain the various impacts. The first time was at 11 o’clock in the evening on the 3rd, emphasizing that the recovery rate of the wafer fab equipment within ten hours of the earthquake had exceeded 70%, and the recovery rate of the new wafer fab had exceeded 80%; the next day, the progress was added: “The new wafer fab is scheduled to be restored today. I will fully recover later.”
In addition to emphasizing that “the equipment in Taiwan’s wafer fab has been basically restored,” the third explanation also added this sentence: “Thanks to the joint efforts of TSMC colleagues and supplier partners.”
Although the magnitude of this earthquake reached 7.2 on the Richter scale, the maximum magnitude of the earthquake in Zhuke, a major semiconductor town, was magnitude 5, and that of Nanke was magnitude 4. A person in the semiconductor industry said that “magnitude 5 is just the upper limit of tolerance for semiconductor machines,” but he also emphasized that, As long as the wafer fab has a need, “the relevant suppliers will call back immediately, whether it is factory affairs, equipment, etc.”
From TSMC’s special thank you for the important news to the rapid response of the semiconductor supply chain, it all fits what Limei Ho, senior deputy general manager of human resources at TSMC, said in an exclusive interview with CNN in March: “If an earthquake occurs in the middle of the night, all engineers know that they must rush back to the company as soon as possible. . ”
An earthquake and a thank you from TSMC have exposed Taiwan’s unique semiconductor supply chain flexibility, resilience and hard work. These capabilities are not only an important foundation for Taiwan’s semiconductor manufacturing power, but also as TSMC and domestic semiconductor industry policies strive to supply supply. With the localization of the chain, the development of advanced processes, and the chip customization trend brought about by the huge wave of AI, Taiwan’s local army in the semiconductor supply chain seems to be one of the brightest groups in the current capital market.
According to the 2021 industry white paper of the Taiwan Electronic Equipment Industry Association, Taiwanese manufacturers only account for 1% to 2% of the global front-end equipment market share, but their back-end equipment exceeds 15%. “The growth rate in recent years has been very rapid, which is related to the overall development of the domestic semiconductor industry.”
What makes this growth momentum even more imaginative is naturally the five English letters that have gradually made waves in the capital market since last year: CoWoS. “In fact, CoWoS has been developing for a long time, but it has only become popular recently,” a supplier said about the recent market popularity. Favored by the capital market, semiconductor equipment and materials stocks have surged. For example, Junhua and Zhisheng have more than doubled in the past six months.
Chiang Shangyi, former co-chief operating officer of TSMC and current chief of semiconductor strategy of Hon Hai Group, also said that 15 years ago in 2009, he proposed to then-TSMC chairman Zhang Zhongmou to establish a packaging unit to develop advanced packaging technology to prepare for the challenges that will inevitably be encountered in the future. The solution to the Moore’s Law bottleneck; Jiang Shangyi interprets this as the origin of CoWoS.
What impressed him deeply was that 400 engineers and US$100 million worth of equipment were invested in research and development, but “no customers dared to use it.”
To put it simply, when local industry players were not sure when advanced packaging would be harvested, they were willing to follow their big customers and learn from their experiences along the way. This has given Taiwanese manufacturers the confidence to quickly expand into the semiconductor equipment field.
After going full circle, Taiwan’s supply chain opportunities have finally returned to the advantages highlighted by the earthquake. Industry insiders joked: “TSMC’s culture is on call. These suppliers who have worked hard with the major wafer manufacturing companies are actually TSMC’s culture.” An extension of… The machine is running 24 hours a day. If something happens to the machine in the middle of the night, you have to come after the call. Foreigners can’t do this kind of thing.”
“We are used to fighting guerrilla warfare,” said Guo Zhihui, chairman of Chongyue, describing his company’s rapid response. He Baijie, a consultant at Kuanliang International, said more broadly. He believes that the trend of customization and the flexibility of supplier cooperation are extremely important for the semiconductor industry. One link said, “There is probably no place in the world that can replicate the DNA of the Taiwanese factory.”
(This article is published byToday’s Weekly》Reprinted with permission)
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2024-04-11 23:58:55
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