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India, Taiwan May Ink Mega Deal to Set Up $7.5 bn Chip Manufacturing Plant

This industry needs $30 billion or so to kick start. I'm not sure if this amount of money is sufficient.

Nevertheless, Good luck for the Nth time ,:undecided:
 
This industry needs $30 billion or so to kick start. I'm not sure if this amount of money is sufficient.

I don't think Taiwan, Samsung, China and Intel put in 30 billion to start.

Some Indian member on the forum said some time ago that if years ago Tata would not have spent on a safe investment in buying the British steel maker ( Corus ) and instead taken some risk and invested even 10 billion or less and set up a chip fab in India it would have been of so much help to India by now.

And even according to the OP of this thread the proposed fab would take 7.5 billion dollars, not 30.
 
By the time this plant is built it will be obsolete already - these plans are very money intensive to keep current and up to date. That is why Taiwan and USA are the only game in town as far as high end Fabs go.
 
Even if this happens, it will take 10+ years to finish, the equipment is going to be 100% imported, the chemicals will be 100% imported, costs will be sky high because they need multiple backup generators due to poor electrical reliability and the fab will operate at very low productivity due to lack of talent.

it takes 7-8 years to build a fab in the US. Is India faster or slower than the US? Can someone tell me if India is more or less business friendly than the US?
Still it has to begin somewhere right ?
It Might as well take 15 years for us but at the end of the day we will be having this fab. What if we never start ?
This industry needs $30 billion or so to kick start. I'm not sure if this amount of money is sufficient.

Nevertheless, Good luck for the Nth time ,:undecided:
Wish us good luck. May be PS6 or PS7 will be available in India at US prices if it succeeds :p::p::p::p:
 
In order to address the global semiconductor chip shortage issue, India is in talks with Taiwan. According to an exclusive report by Bloomberg, this could bring chip manufacturing to South Asia along with tariff reductions on components for producing semiconductors by the end of the year.

The Bloomberg report said that officials in New Delhi and Taipei have met in recent weeks to discuss a deal that would bring a chip plant worth an estimated $7.5 billion to India to supply everything from 5G devices to electric cars

World leaders and executives at multinational corporations have been worried about the global scarcity of semiconductors, which has hit manufacturing and sales in numerous countries and no early solution is in sight.

Here’s a closer look at the crisis:

What caused the semiconductor shortage?

Semiconductors, or chips, have properties that are somewhere between conductors and insulators. Usually made of silicon, they are used to power a wide range of devices - cars, laptops, smartphones, household appliances and gaming consoles.

These tiny objects perform a host of functions such as powering displays and transferring data. So, a supply crunch has a consequent impact on sales of cars, fridges, laptops, TVs and other electronic devices.

Manufacturing cannot be increased on short notice. As a Bloomberg report points out, making chips is a complex process that takes months.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC) is the world’s largest contract chipmaker, whose customers include Qualcomm, Nivdia and Apple. It holds 56 percent of the foundry business of manufacturing chips.

The surge in sales for electronic devices during the pandemic created a huge demand for semiconductors. But COVID-19 is not the only factor behind the shortage.

The tense relationship between the United States and China is also a factor, since many US companies do business with Chinese companies. For instance, Huawei, which supplied to American chip makers, has been blacklisted by the US government.

What are the possible fallouts?
Since production cannot be pushed at short notice, it takes chip manufacturers a long time to catch up with demand.

A report published by Gartner in May estimates that the chip shortage across categories of devices could continue well into the second quarter of 2022.

“The semiconductor shortage will severely disrupt the supply chain and will constrain the production of many electronic equipment types in 2021. Foundries are increasing wafer prices, and in turn, chip companies are increasing device prices," said Kanishka Chauhan, principal research analyst at Gartner.

One report by Bloomberg points out that chip lead times, or the period between ordering semiconductors and delivery, rose to a record 21 weeks in August, from six weeks in July.

According to data from Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), automobile wholesales in India declined 11 percent year-on-year in August.

Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest carmaker, will see a 60 percent cut in production in September due to shortage in supply of semiconductors.

Mahindra and Mahindra M&M said it would cut output by 20-25 percent in September due to the semiconductor shortage. The automaker will observe seven “no production days" at its automotive plants during the month.

There is a strong likelihood that the semiconductor shortage will impact sales during the upcoming festive season in India.

What about laptops, smartphones etc?
Production of electronic devices has also been impacted by the shortage of semiconductors.

During a post-earnings call with analysts, Apple CEO Tim Cook had said that “supply constraints will hurt sales of iPads and iPhones. Cook said the shortage is not in high-powered processors, but “legacy nodes,” or chips that perform functions like driving displays or decoding audio, which can be manufactured using older equipment.

South Korea’s largest conglomerate Samsung Group had in August said it would invest 240 trillion won ($206 billion) in the next three years to expand its footprint in biopharmaceuticals, artificial intelligence, semiconductors and robotics.

Many tech companies have begun developing their own chips, a move that will not only alleviate the current supply concerns but will likely help the industry in the long-run




such bullshit, capital, discipline, hard work, smarts, law and order for high end manufacturing, Indians have none

but plenty of this
 
India’s chip industry can leapfrog on Taiwan deal, but beware of China


India-Taiwan ties seem to be in a honeymoon phase now. According to recent news reports, the two governments are finalising a semiconductor manufacturing agreement worth billions of dollars. This bilateral co-operation would encourage semiconductor giants such as the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC) and other players to diversify their production beyond their geographical location.

India, a captive market and a potential supplier, can help itself rejig similar manufacturing units, and partake in the global production chain. However, given the evolving geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific, India’s ties with Taiwan cannot be insulated from some eye-rolling from China.

Demand-Supply Balance

From smart phones to high-performance computing, and from automobiles to digital consumer electronics, semiconductors are the backbone of modern day life. Thanks to the United States-China trade war since 2017, followed by COVID-19 pandemic for the last 18 months, the shortage has had a ripple effect across high-tech manufacturing industries.

In India, auto majors such as Maruti have their productions slumped because of supply shortage. With few global players in the US, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, the supply disruption has created serious concerns to other economies to re-strategize policies for self-sufficiency, and not to be caught off guard again.

India, and China — both net importers of semiconductors — have been reeling under such problems. Nevertheless, China has made it a national strategy for ‘technological independence’, and develop its own semiconductor industry spending billions of dollars, more so since the trade war with the US.

India’s China Conundrum

When it comes to semiconductors, India is a net importer. In 2020, India imported approximately 40 percent of the total electronics from China, ever after a serious tension at the border in Ladakh in mid-June. In fact, China is India’s largest trading partner.

Although India has a niche capability in chip designs, its role in the global semiconductor supply chain is unnoticeable. The uncertainty of increasing border tensions and an aggressive China in South Asia can be a destabilising factor for India’s economy in the long run. Unless India diversifies its dependence of these crucial products, it would be disastrous not only on the economic front, but also in other strategic sectors. Therefore, engaging with Taiwanese semiconductor firms is a welcome move.

The TSMC, one of the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, investing together with Indian partners would help India harness its resources and capabilities to become self-sufficient, if not a net exporter.

However, India’s tango with Taiwan could be disconcerting China, which regards the Taiwan as one of its ‘own provinces’, even when it has a separate self-ruling political system since its formation. Moreover, India’s ‘One-China Policy’ does make New Delhi cautious as to not make it a big announcement giving due regards for Beijing’s concerns.

Since Taiwan is an emotional issue for China’s ruling Chinese Communist Party, and more so under President Xi Jinping, de-hyphenating economic and political engagements become difficult. In fact, New Delhi will be treading a thin line so as to not invite Beijing’s wrath.

Additionally, India is one of the 11 countries that is included under Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy (xin nanxiang zhengce), so the mandate of bilateral ties more are economic and cultural than political. In fact, Taipei and New Delhi’s bilateral co-operation in the education sector, especially the joint programmes in science and technology, fellowships to study, research and work in Taiwan, is laudable.

Changing Geopolitical Realities

With the new regional arrangements in the form of the Quad, and now AUKUS, the Indo-Pacific is a new theatre of power games. Although the Quad has taken cognisance of the possible scenario, multi-layered co-operation not only becomes a premium among the partners but also among competitors — not just in strategic domains but in global commons too.

The ‘peaceful’ rise of China hypothesis is doubted by these countries and more so by its neighbours. Taiwan, though not a member of these arrangements, could be at the centre of the storm of these geopolitical realities. Some analyses indicate that China can enrich its semiconductor capability by a hostile takeover of the island. It is also likely such instances could result in global disruption, and sabotage.

However, that should not matter in India’s push for developing a semiconductor industry. If India wants to succeed in inking the deal with the TSMC, then the homework is yet to begin. Industries such as these require a well-incubated ecosystem. India needs to have hi-tech campuses and firms like the ones in Hsinchu, Taiwan’s Silicon Valley, which can help India have a competitive advantage. ‘Jugaad’ will not help.

 
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