Taiwan's TSMC says no plans for now to build factories in Europe

By Sarah Wu and Yimou Lee

TAIPEI – Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) mentioned on Wednesday it has no concrete plans for factories in Europe – remarks that come amid efforts by the European Union to encourage Taiwanese corporations to fabricate chips there.

With many industries affected by a worldwide scarcity of semiconductors, Taiwan and the EU held excessive stage commerce talks final week with chip cooperation on the prime of the agenda. In February, the EU unveiled the European Chips Act, with the bloc mentioning Taiwan as one of many “like-minded companions” Europe want to work with.

TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker and Asia’s most useful listed firm, flagged a 12 months in the past that it was within the early levels of reviewing a possible enlargement into Germany however there seems to have been no substantive progress since then.

“In Europe, we now have comparatively fewer clients, however we're nonetheless assessing and nonetheless do not need any concrete plans,” Chairman Mark Liu informed an annual shareholders’ assembly.

TSMC is spending $12 billion on chip factories in the US and is constructing a manufacturing unit with Sony Group in Japan to assist alleviate the worldwide chip scarcity.

Liu mentioned the corporate was seeing greater prices for its U.S. enlargement than estimated. “However we will deal with it,” he added.

TSMC additionally mentioned it expects income development of round 30% this 12 months, on the higher finish of an earlier forecast, because the chip scarcity retains order books full and costs excessive.