The decades-long tussle between China and Taiwan (China Taiwan Crisis 2022) has peaked for the past few days. The recent visit of US Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan has raised the crisis once again. China had been warning continuously since the news of this visit came to light and now the fear has deepened that the war may not start in the Gulf of Taiwan.
In the midst of all these developments, another concern is troubling the world. Already from the Auto Industry to the Smartphone Industry, they are troubled by Chip Shortage. This crisis can become more serious if the situation in Taiwan worsens because this small country is the world's factory in terms of semiconductors.
Taiwan's emergence in the case of semiconductors began in the year 1985. The government of Taiwan tasked Morris Chang to prepare a blueprint for developing the emerging semiconductor industry in his country. After this, in 1987, the Taiwanese government, Morris Chang, Chang Chun Moi and Tseng Fan Cheng together established the 'Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company'.
Today it is the largest semiconductor company in the world. The dominance of this company in the case of semiconductors can be gauged from the fact that TSMC was once meeting 92 per cent of the global market demand. At the same time, the stake of the second-ranked South Korean company Samsung was limited to just 8 percent.
After the onset of the Corona epidemic in the year 2020, Taiwan's semiconductor industry was badly affected. However, even after this, Taiwan's dominance in the semiconductor industry remains intact.
According to data from Taipei-based research firm Trendforce, Taiwanese companies accounted for more than 60 percent of the semiconductor industry's total global revenue in 2020. TSMC contributed the most in this. TSMC is still the world's largest semiconductor company and giants like Apple, Qualcomm, Navidia, Microsoft, Sony, Asus, Yamaha, Panasonic are its clients.
Let us tell you that semiconductors are used extensively in electronics, computers, smartphones, cars sensors. Semiconductor production is a complex task, from design companies to manufacturing companies. Apart from this, the network of semiconductor industry includes companies supplying technology to supplying materials and machinery. Taiwan's leading semiconductor company TSMC mainly focuses on manufacturing. The importance of TSMC can also be understood from the fact that it is, along with Samsung, two of the few companies in the world that manufacture the most advanced 5-nanometer chips.
Talking about China, it is miles behind Taiwan. Taiwan's TSMC was at the first position in terms of revenue in the year 2020. The second number was also occupied by another Taiwanese company UMC. South Korean company Samsung was in third place.
After that the American company Global Foundries was in fourth place. The Chinese company SMIC was the number five company in the semiconductor industry. Right now TSMAC is setting up plants in many other countries after the chip shortage during the Corona epidemic. For this, this Taiwanese company has tied up with companies like Wafer Tech, Acer, WSMC, Apple.
