Automakers around the world are shutting assembly lines due
to the shortages, which in some cases have been exacerbated by the former US
administration's actions against Chinese chip factories.
On Wednesday, Taiwan's economy minister said major Taiwanese
chipmakers were willing to prioritise supplies for auto makers, after she met
senior company executives including from TSMC.
In a statement, TSMC said it was addressing the chip supply
"challenges" as their top priority.
"The automotive supply chain is long and complex and we
have worked with our automotive customers and identified their critical
needs," the world's largest contract chipmaker said.
"TSMC is currently expediting these critical automotive
products through our wafer fabs. While our capacity is fully utilised with
demand from every sector, TSMC is reallocating our wafer capacity to support
the worldwide automotive industry."
In 2020, auto chips accounted only for 3 percent of TSMC's
sales, lagging smartphones' 48 percent and 33 percent for high-performance
chips.
In the fourth quarter, sales for TSMC's auto chips jumped 27
percent from the previous quarter, but still only accounted for 3 percent of
overall sales.
The issue has become a diplomatic one, with German Economy
Minister Peter Altmaier writing to his Taiwanese counterpart Wang Mei-hua to
ask her for help in addressing it.
Wang said the other companies whose executives she met were
from United Microelectronics Corp (UMC), Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing,
and Vanguard International Semiconductor.
UMC Co-President Jason Wang, speaking on an investor call
late Wednesday, said their fabs were also operating at a 100 percent
utilisation rate and that they were trying to address the auto chip shortage.
"It's hard to increase the capacity. It's more about
re-prioritising. Prioritising the automotive market, so hopefully we can
relieve some of the pressure," he said.
"Some of the capacity increase will come from
productivity improvement and for those the priority will probably be allocated
to automotive at the current time."
UMC does not break down details for auto chips in terms of
how much it makes up for in production or revenue exposure.
The shortage has affected Volkswagen, Ford Motor, Subaru,
Toyota Motor, Nissan Motor, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and other car makers.
© Reuters