Friday, December 3rd 2021
UMC is Feeling the Pressure from Chinese Foundries
The chip shortage discussion has been very focused on TSMC for some reason and although the company is without a doubt the world's leading foundry, the company is making its living from being a cutting edge foundry, whereas much of the components that there's a shortage of are made on far older nodes at many different foundries. Taiwanese UMC is one of the foundries that makes many of the automotive semiconductors, as well as key components when it comes to power regulation and is considered the world's third largest foundry.
Until 2018, UMC was competing head on with TSMC, although the company was always about a node behind TSMC, which led to a management team decision to slow down its node transition and instead to focus on speciality technologies. The company has done well in this niche, with a revenue of about US$6.2 billion in 2020. However, UMC is starting to feel the pressure from its competitors in China, as the PRC government is making a push for local production of local IC designs.
That in itself might not be a challenge for UMC, as the company is offering some unique products to its customers, such as mixed-mode RF and RF on SOI, various MEMS and CMOS image sensor solutions and high Voltage solutions. That said, some 16 percent of UMC's revenue is from companies based in China and this is likely to decline as the likes of SMIC and HLMC are starting to catch up. A bigger worry is the fact that the PRC government is giving incentives to local IC design companies if they produce their designs using local foundries.
Currently, UMC has long-term contracts with some 70 percent of its clients that stretches three to six years into the future, but with increasing competition it looks like UMC is going to have to work on bringing more advanced node offerings to its customers. It should also be noted that GlobalFoundries is currently UMC's biggest competitors when it comes to a lot of the specialty products, especially SOI type products, although GlobalFoundries are in a similar situation to UMC and both companies are going to have to invest in more advanced technologies over the next couple of years to stay competitive.
Source:
Tech Taiwan
Until 2018, UMC was competing head on with TSMC, although the company was always about a node behind TSMC, which led to a management team decision to slow down its node transition and instead to focus on speciality technologies. The company has done well in this niche, with a revenue of about US$6.2 billion in 2020. However, UMC is starting to feel the pressure from its competitors in China, as the PRC government is making a push for local production of local IC designs.
Currently, UMC has long-term contracts with some 70 percent of its clients that stretches three to six years into the future, but with increasing competition it looks like UMC is going to have to work on bringing more advanced node offerings to its customers. It should also be noted that GlobalFoundries is currently UMC's biggest competitors when it comes to a lot of the specialty products, especially SOI type products, although GlobalFoundries are in a similar situation to UMC and both companies are going to have to invest in more advanced technologies over the next couple of years to stay competitive.
14 Comments on UMC is Feeling the Pressure from Chinese Foundries
So they're the reason we are waiting 6-8 months to get a vehicle??
Heated steering wheel, heated seats, climate control, electric moon roof, navigation system etc
Not to mention all the driver safety aides for incompetent drivers to make the roads safer.
Jokes aside, people are really taking this anti China thing get out of control. Like China is the only bad government in the world we all do bussiness with.
Hell I could live even without power steering and windows (okay, AC is a must:p). This way we would not only need less energy to move the chassis but would also need less materials to produce our cars.
I mean... let's say it is a matter of competency. Some drivers certainly are more competent than others. Do we just let the less competent ones die in accidents at an increased rate? Or do we maybe just look at safety features that WE may not feel we need and realize that somebody out there is still upright and moving right now because of that? I tend to agree... I don't really lament that, or blame other drivers. Driving just IS dangerous. Period.
Though honestly, kinda beside the point to me. I'd rather see less people really needing cars to get around, instead being able to use cheaper, safer alternatives. Roads and highways kinda suck... at least in America they do. They bring so many other detrimental things with them, too. Like, the roads and massive friggin parking lots needed everywhere are entire sets of absurd planning and engineering problems in themselves. The need for convenience for cars puts us all in that purgatory. I don't really need a car, personally... except nothing here is really walking distance and there is no public transit. I'd love to move around where I live with less risk and cost. I'd rather see better infrastructure and better ways of getting around than taking one way that is super-dangerous, extremely environmentally unsound, expensive, inefficient, and surprisingly inconvenient, and trying to make it a little less... all of those things by just making more stuff to go with it. I just also understand how insurmountable it would be to *really* get away from cars here. So safety features it is. Some of them, I think are rooted more in marketing than science but that just is what it is in this economy. Gotta always be selling something new or you cease to exist. A whole different problem, yet closely related to so many of our problems :laugh:
For me, self driving cars can't come soon enough. For now, there is family and uber. Still safer than me on the road.