Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) said Monday that construction of a planned 12-inch wafer plant in Kaohsiung will start later this year.

The chipmaker’s comments came after the company said it has been invited by the Kaohsiung City Government to attend an Aug. 7 groundbreaking ceremony for the city’s Nanzih industrial park, where the new TSMC plant will be built.

TSMC announced plans in November 2021 to set up a 12-inch wafer plant in the southern port city.

According to the company, the complex will use its advanced 7-nanometer process and its mature 28nm process to roll out chips, with production scheduled to begin in 2024.

Chips made on the 7nm process are expected to be used in emerging technologies such as high-performance computing devices, while chips on the 28nm process are likely destined for automotive electronic applications, analysts said.

While TSMC has not disclosed any financial terms for the new facility, analysts said it could cost between NT$200 billion (US$6.67 billion) and NT$300 billion.

The Nanzih industrial park was formerly the site of a naphtha cracking plant owned by state-owned oil supplier CPC Corp., Taiwan.

TSMC’s plans for production facilities at the industrial park passed an environmental impact assessment in April.

After it begins operations, the new TSMC fab is expected to create 1,500 new jobs, with annual production value estimated to hit NT$157.6 billion.

Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (???) on Monday did not confirm whether work on the Nanzih industrial park would begin exactly on Aug. 7 but said it should start this month.

In a statement released Monday, the Kaohsiung City Government said that the presence of TSMC in the Nanzih industrial park is expected to help the city form a semiconductor cluster in five years, which will boost high-end semiconductor technology development and cultivate a talent pool for the industry.

The semiconductor supply chain in Kaohsiung is expected to create more than 45,000 jobs, and speed up the pace of development not only in the manufacturing sector but also in the service and commercial sector, the city government said.

The city government said that since Chen assumed the post as Kaohsiung mayor in August 2020 after winning a by-election, the city government had attracted NT$498.1 billion in investments as of the end of April.

In addition to TSMC, other major tech companies such as Taiwan’s WIN Semiconductors Corp., and German-based tech giant Merck Group have pledged to invest in Kaohsiung.

Source : Focus Taiwan News Channel