TSMC's establishment of factories in the United States has been a series of twists and turns. The latest problem it encountered was that it had disputes with American workers, so much so that it no longer trusted American workers. It tried to introduce more workers from Taiwan, China to the United States, but it caused new problems. , which makes TSMC physically and mentally exhausted.
It is understood that TSMC currently employs 12,000 workers in its factories in the United States. However, due to distrust of American labor unions, two-thirds of American workers have not joined American labor unions. This has made American labor unions quite angry, which has triggered conflicts between both parties. dispute.
TSMC's U.S. factory production line workers also had disputes with the technical backbone that TSMC transferred from Taiwan, China to the United States. American workers were unwilling to accept the 24-hour work arrangement. In desperation, TSMC could only allow 300 technical backbones to work on the production line, and these 300 technical backbones The backbones originally thought that they would go to the United States to do management and technology research and development work, and their income was much lower than that of American workers. This naturally made these technical backbones dissatisfied.
To this end, TSMC plans to introduce 500 more workers from Taiwan, China to the United States, but the U.S. labor unions are obstructing it, believing that these workers will take away opportunities from American workers, making it difficult for TSMC to advance its plan. As a result, TSMC's promotion of mass production in U.S. factories has fallen into many difficulties. difficulty.
In fact, TSMC faces more factors than these in its U.S. factories. The sharp increase in production costs has given TSMC a headache. TSMC founder Zhang Zhongmou once predicted that the cost of producing chips in the United States may rise by 50%. However, the industry chain that followed TSMC to set up factories in the United States Sources pointed out that the cost of time increase may be as high as 4 times.
The original intention of TSMC to set up a factory in the United States was to curry favor with American chips, thereby prompting more orders for American chips to TSMC. However, the U.S. chip industry has been in continuous decline since last year, and orders to TSMC have also decreased. TSMC’s performance in the second quarter of this year shows revenue It has fallen below 16 billion U.S. dollars, down more than 10% from last year's peak. TSMC's chip production capacity has become excessive, which makes TSMC lose confidence in continuing to promote U.S. factories.
In this regard, industry insiders believe that TSMC should cut off its efforts and stop promoting U.S. factories. In fact, this is not the first time that TSMC has suffered setbacks in the United States. In the late 1990s, TSMC set up factories in the United States, but suffered continuous losses. In the end, TSMC gave up its U.S. factories. Based on this lesson, TSMC’s best choice may be to stop promoting U.S. factories.
TSMC itself seems to have lost hope in U.S. factories. It has aggressively expanded globally. It has planned a new production line for its 10-nanometer factory in Japan and plans to increase investment; it has also advanced its 28-nanometer process production line at its Nanjing factory in China. , showing that it is actively seeking new customers.
Recently, Germany announced that it will provide TSMC with a subsidy of 5 billion euros, accounting for half of TSMC’s investment in German factories, and the conditions are quite loose. Compared with the subsidy provided by the United States to TSMC, which is less than 10% of TSMC’s investment in the United States, it undoubtedly highlights Germany’s generosity, and the pitiful subsidies provided by the United States also require many additional conditions.
TSMC already has a problem of overcapacity, and its deployment in China, Japan, and Germany will only further exacerbate overcapacity. Under such circumstances, it is undoubtedly a wise choice to abandon the U.S. factory project that has run into many difficulties. Continuing to invest in the United States is just a matter of course. It's just a plunge into the salty sea. Maybe TSMC really needs to make a choice.