AIPEI (TAIWAN) – Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Sunday it has received requests from diplomatic channels to extend help to ease a shortage of chips for the auto sector. It has requested local tech firms to lend “full assistance”.
Automakers around the world are closing down assembly lines because of a shortage of semiconductors experienced globally, which in a few cases has been made severe by the former Trump administration’s measures against prominent Chinese chip factories, according to industry officials.
The shortage has hit Ford Motor Co, Subaru Corp, Toyota Motor Corp, Volkswagen, Nissan Motor Co Ltd, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and other car makers.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs said, after media reported that German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier had intimated Taiwan’s government about the same. “Since the end of last year, diplomatic channels have indeed received requests from relevant countries due to the shortage of automotive chips.”
The ministry, however, said it had not yet received the letter from Germany and cannot make any comments on its contents.
The ministry said major international automakers have directly not been Taiwanese semiconductor chip makers’ customers. However, other automotive chip makers have been making orders with Taiwan manufacturers and sell them to car makers.
Ministry said, “The relevant supply and demand situation is also closely related to the plans of automotive chip factories to reduce inventory during the off-season.”
It said discussions were on with domestic chip suppliers as response to requests from other countries and “asked the chip manufacturers to provide full assistance”.
TSMC, in a statement, said the issue of chips shortages for auto companies was crucial for them.
It said, “It is our top priority, and TSMC is working closely with our automotive customers to resolve the capacity support issues,” it said.