At the beginning of the month, media reports said that key semiconductor manufacturing equipment may have to wait a year and a half or more for delivery, as unprecedented parts shortages and tight supply chains have hit the chip equipment industry hard. TSMC, UMC, and Samsung even sent executives overseas to urge their equipment suppliers to step up their efforts.
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According to the latest report of Taiwanese media “Science and Technology News”, the market has once again reported that TSMC has sent high-level negotiations to negotiate directly with equipment suppliers, and even placed orders in the “price increase” mode to get equipment earlier.
However, the industry believes that the possibility of increasing the purchase price is not high, because the procurement contract is standardized, and other customers of the equipment supplier also belong to the first-tier manufacturers, so it is not easy to change the supply order.
This time, TSMC President Wei Zhejia explained the equipment delivery status. He said that equipment suppliers are facing the challenges of the COVID-19 epidemic, but it is expected that TSMC’s capacity expansion plan in 2022 will not be affected.
Moreover, the company has also dispatched several teams to provide on-site support and confirm the key chips that affect the delivery of the machine. It also cooperates with customers to plan the company’s production capacity to give priority to supporting these key chips, assist suppliers to ensure the supply and delivery of machines, and try their best.
