Posted on Wednesday, February 19 2020 @ 18:47 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
Following pressure from the US, DigiTimes
reports TSMC is trying to reduce the manufacturing capacity that it provides to Huawei. The latter is one of the Taiwanese foundry's bigger clients, but geopolitical tension between the US and China is putting strain on the relationship.
The US has been mounting pressure on its allies over its trade ban on Huawei, which has in turn been shaking the IT supply chain. The world's top pure-play foundry TSMC, with Huawei being one of its major clients, reportedly is moving to reduce its reliance on the Chinese tech giant. But TSMC's clients should be rest assured that the foundry house will be able to maintain smooth operations despite the coronavirus outbreak in China, which is home to only a small portion of its capacity. Most other ICT and semiconductor firms that have heavily relied on production in China are having difficulties resuming normal production. Among them are suppliers of CIS and chip resistors, which are running out of supply, with prices set to go up. SSD retail prices in China are also rising unexpectedly, as channel distributors are now reluctant to sell amid concerns of supply chain disruptions.
