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You can't just sit back

Colley Hwang, DIGITIMES Asia, Taipei 0

Credit: DIGITIMES

TSMC has mastered the structural advantage, but can it just sit back? DIGITIMES recently collaborated with National Taiwan University's (NTU) leadership program to conduct a series of analyses and reports on ESG issues in the technology and automotive industries, and I was impressed by the research done by NTU students on how TSMC compares to other world-class companies.

Due to the extensive use of EUV equipment, TSMC's carbon emissions in Scope 2 are much higher than those of its competitors, which makes it easy to imagine TSMC's positive attitude toward net-zero emissions. Our study also confirms TSMC's significant progress. TSMC has not only maintained its high performance compared to world-class companies, but also maintained a strong lead in the semiconductor industry.

TSMC's ESG rating compares favorably with leading technology companies such as Amazon, Alibaba, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Intel, and Apple, with the only company doing better than TSMC being fabless chip vendor Nvidia.

Enterprises have a certain level of awareness and progress in promoting net-zero emissions. The function of the professional media is to systematically report on the strategic plans and standards proposed by different types of major international companies or organizations, so that we can keep up with the world mainstream or predict the mainstream direction.

But the media in general are mostly critical of enterprises' internal plans, but haven't really made any constructive suggestions. I host a program called on IC Broadcasting, where I talk about general knowledge of the industry. For example, when an iPhone is assembled in Zhengzhou, China and shipped back to the US, where will it make its transshipment stop - in Incheon or Taoyuan? In Russia-Ukraine war, which route will China Airlines, Japan Airlines and Korean Airlines take foor their flights to Europe?

In comparison to the global average of 26%, Taiwan's trade volume by air is as high as 47%. The key is semiconductors. With this common sense, we can talk about the transportation system of semiconductors, otherwise Taiwanese are really just a "box mover."

The greatest joy of being related to the ICT industry is that everyone in it makes money by knowledge and technology. It is a joy to be able to make money leveraging the superb performances of TSMC, UMC, MediaTek and the likes.

Colley Hwang, president of DIGITIMES Asia, is a tech industry analyst with more than three decades of experience under his belt. He has written several books about the trends and developments of the tech industry, including Asian Edge: On the Frontline of the ICT World published in 2019, and Disconnected ICT Supply Chain: New Power Plays Unfolding published in 2020.