Asian Tech Press (Feb 25) -- Semiconductor companies TSMC and UMC said they have not exported related products to Russia, even as Taiwan government joined in US-led sanctions on the country.
The Taiwan government said Friday that it will follow up on the US-led sanctions against Russia and make a strict review for the export of related products, according to Taiwan's Economic Daily News.
In response, TSMC said almost no products have been exported to Russia at present.
The world's largest chipmaker said it has the North American market as the largest one, with a share of 65% last year, followed by the Asia-Pacific region, accounting for about 14%, China at 10%, Japan at 5%; Europe, the Middle East and Africa about 6%.
UMC likewise said that no products have been exported to the country. It stressed that Taiwan's sanctions against Russia will not affect its operations and the company will act in accordance with the government's relevant regulations.
Liu Pei-chen, a researcher at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, said that Russia took up only NT$560 million ($20.01 million) of Taiwan's overall semiconductor exports in 2021, and the proportion was only 0.01%.
The researcher pointed out that although Russia holds a high percentage of gases and precious metals required for semiconductor-related manufacturing processes, it is known that Taiwan's major manufacturers have almost a six-month window of safety in their inventories, and there are multiple suppliers from Puerto Rico, South Africa, Japan, China, Germany and other countries, so the Russian-Ukraine conflict will not have much impact on Taiwan's semiconductor industry.
Liu also said that Russia is Taiwan's 35th largest exporter of semiconductors, and the top five export items include hybrid ICs, amplifiers, dynamic random access memory (DRAM), transistors and related wafers, processors and related industrial control systems (ICSs).
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine is still a source of uncertainty for the supply front of the global semiconductor supply chain, she said.
