TAIPEI (TVBS News) — At the annual Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association (TSIA) convention held in Hsinchu on Wednesday (Oct. 19), TSMC Chairman Mark Liu said little on recent reports of waning demand due to the weakening global economy and trade conflicts between the U.S. and China.
However, he did imply that additional help from the Taiwanese government is more than welcome. "We, of course, need the government to formulate specific long-term environmental policies such as those toward water, electricity, and land," Liu said.
"Establishing these forward-looking and feasible environmental regulations can help the industry achieve sustainable development," he added. TSMC has seen share prices fall by nearly 42% since the beginning of the year.
On Oct. 7, the U.S. also issued restrictions on IC and production equipment exports to China, further impacting the curtailed demand TSMC already faces. To this, Taiwan's largest semiconductor company has cut back on its capital spending, which was announced on Oct. 14.
According to the world's largest contract chipmaker, the inventory correction is expected to carry through to the first half of 2023.
"That is, about March and April 2023. So indeed, I think it is likely that it will take another six months," Yang Jui-lin, the deputy division director of the ITRI Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center remarked.
Experts also indicate that the U.S. trade sanctions against China will impact Taiwan's semiconductor industry for about a year before recovering. This time around, the scope of sanctions has expanded to semiconductors used in supercomputers and AI.
Though the situation is less than ideal now, the TSMC Chairman called on the industry to become more competitive and make a path through the headwinds.
