No plan to relax chip investment restrictions
The government has no plan to ease current restrictions on China investment by Taiwan chipmakers, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang said yesterday.
Shih made the remarks during a meeting with a group of opposition Democratic Progressive Party legislators.
He was responding to a United Daily News report that the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) will allow Taiwan chipmakers to move 12-inch wafer fabs to China starting August and to use 90-nanometer manufacturing technology in China.
Dismissing the report as mere speculation, Shih said the ministry has not discussed this issue.
The ministry will first have to work out a set of complementary measures before relaxing the investment restrictions, Shih added.
The government has so far only allowed chipmakers to set up fabs producing 8-inch or smaller semiconductor wafers and using 0.18-micron or larger processes in China.
Manufacturers that have obtained the government’s approval to move their 8-inch wafer fabs to China include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Powerchip Semiconductor Corp. and ProMos Technologies.
Tags: investment, Semiconductor