Semiconductor Supply Chain in Taiwan

Based in New York, Jahanara Nissar serves as managing partner at Lynx Equity Strategies. Jahanara Nissar has extensive knowledge of hardware, information technology, and semiconductor stocks and touched on Taiwanese chip production bottlenecks in a piece published in Street Insider.

In early June 2021, chip testing services leader King Yuan Electronics (KYEC) was forced to suspend production for two days because of a COVID-19 outbreak among foreign workers at the company. This impacted the semiconductor backend supply chain, which provides product testing, wafer probing, and assembly solutions to major companies such as Nvidia, Qualcomm, Intel, and Mediatek.

KYEC boasts the backend supply chain industry’s second-largest testing revenue for semiconductors. It supplies wafer probing, product testing, and assembly services to the likes of Qualcomm, Intel, Nvidia, MediaTek, and Novatek.

The broader global semiconductor shortage continues to be a high-profile issue. America’s top diplomat went so far as to raise the issue with Taiwan in formal meetings, as it has impacted several United States auto manufacturers.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., a leader in contract chipmaking, describes a situation of gradually easing supply stress but notes that semiconductor capacity tightness is a persistent issue that will likely extend to 2023. At the same time, Apple iPhone assembler Foxconn stated that the COVID-19 resurgence in Asia could further impact its technology supply chain.