Taiwan’s semiconductor industry has been aggressively recruiting talent this year, with its demand for workers in the second quarter rising more than 44 percent from a year earlier, Web site 104 Job Bank (104????) has said. The industry is worth NT$3 trillion (US$107.9 billion). In a white paper on the semiconductor industry’s workforce, 104 Job Bank said that Taiwan-based semiconductor companies averaged 27,701 job openings per month from April to June, the most in six-and-a-half years. Photo: Tsai Shu-yuan, Taipei Times That was an increase of 44.4 percent compared with the second quarter of last year and was the fourth consecutive quarter in which the figure rose. 104 Job Bank said that while the global economy has been hurt by COVID-19, Taiwan’s semiconductor industry has benefited from strong demand for emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, 5G applications and the Internet of Things, and continued to grow. The booming stay-at-home economy, including the rising popularity of online learning and remote work, has also boosted demand for semiconductors, driving the need for more workers, 104 Job Bank said. Within the semiconductor industry, the IC manufacturing sector saw the monthly average of its job openings in the second quarter grow 55.3 percent from a year earlier, it said. This compares with 51.2 percent for the IC packaging and testing sector, and 40.8 percent for the IC design sector, it said. IC engineers accounted for about 55 percent of the job openings advertised in the semiconductor industry per month on average, 104 Job Bank said. Despite the growing demand, the average monthly wage in the semiconductor industry fell NT$195 (US$7), or 0.4 percent from a year earlier, to NT$52,483 in the second quarter, trailing the computer and consumer electronics industry’s NT$54,640, it said. The IC design segment offered an average monthly wage of NT$67,834, compared with NT$56,190 in the IC manufacturing segment, and NT$47,014 in the IC packaging and testing segment. The average pay, including bonuses, in the local semiconductor industry was NT$1.7 million, lower than the NT$2 million to NT$3.5 million seen in the US, Singapore and Japan, 104 Job Bank said. AUTO CHIPS: Hon Hai Precision Industry Co chairman Young Liu said that buying the fab signals its entry into the manufacture of ‘wide-bandgap semiconductors’ Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (????) yesterday said it has clinched a NT$2.52 billion (US$90.71 million) deal to purchase a 6-inch wafer fab, including facilities and manufacturing equipment, from memorychip maker Macronix International Co (??), a major stride toward expanding into the auto chip business. The iPhone assembler plans to develop and manufacture new-generation silicon carbide (SiC) chips used in electric vehicles at the fab, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (???) told a joint news conference in Hsinchu. Hon Hai would spend several billion dollars beyond the purchase price to expand the fab’s capacity to 15,000 wafers per month, which could JOINT VOUCHERS: A NT$14,000 package allows two guests to stay one night in a suite at either Caesar Park Kenting, Fleur de Chine Hotel or Hotel Royal Chiaohsi Taiwan’s three major hotel chains yesterday teamed up in a bid to boost business by offering limited packages aimed at attracting affluent tourists to their flagship resorts. L’Hotel de Chine Group (????), Hotel Royal Group (???????) and Caesar Park Hotels and Resorts (????) have joined forces to sell vouchers that allow tourists to spend one night at Caesar Park Kenting in Pingtung County, Fleur de Chine Hotel near Nantou County’s Sun Moon Lake (???) or Hotel Royal Chiaohsi in Yilan County for NT$14,000 to NT$38,888, depending on the number of guests. The collaboration is intended to keep the hospitality industry alive after Taiya Renewable Energy Co (????) has thrown its hat into the ring for the third phase of Taiwan’s offshore wind farm development with two projects totaling 2.1 gigawatts (GW) in capacity, the company said yesterday as it applied for an environmental impact assessment (EIA). One of the projects, called HuanYu (??), with a capacity of 627 megawatts, would be off the coast of Taichung, the firm said. It would use fixed-bottom turbines and would be submitted to next year’s auction, it added. The other project, called HuanYa (??), with 1.43GW capacity, would be farther off Miaoli County and might enter a later LOCAL INVESTMENT: The chipmaker plans to start building a new 12-inch fab in New Taipei City’s Taishan District at the end of this year at the earliest, its chairman said Nanya Technology Corp (????) expects a further uptick in DRAM chip prices during the second half of this year, extending a three-quarters-long price uptrend, as the world’s major memorychip suppliers are being disciplined about capacity expansion. “Based on information from the world’s top three suppliers, they have been conservative about capital spending over the past two years. The growth in [DRAM] supply this year mainly derives from technology upgrades, meaning the output increase will be very disciplined,” Nanya Technology chairman Wu Chia-chau (???) said yesterday during opening remarks at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Taoyuan’s Nankan District (??). “Overall, supply and
