This is Merck from Germany aka Merck Serono, not the much larger Merck from the US aka Merck, Sharp, and Dohme (MSD). Not an important difference for many of us, but when you have friends and ex-colleagues in both, it helps a little to distinguish the two. I would be more curious if it were MSD making a major investment in Taiwan than if it were Merck.
Great news but I was also disappointed to see it is not their biochemical reagents division.
Yeah, biotech wouldâve been sexier than the same ole same ole semiconductor stuff.
I would not be surprised in the next 1-2 years when western drugmakers start making many large similar deals with Taiwan biotech firms (along with whatâs happening with S. Korean biotech firms).
Easy to connect the dots of whatâs happened in terms of trade conflicts and health pandemic since 2018/2019 until now and what form of risk for new FDI undertaken by western firms will now focus on
Has Taiwan won any contracts to manufacture vaccines yet?
No.
Guy
Useless factoids of the day:
This Merck is from a city (town?) with the beautiful modern day name of Darmstadt.
The origin of the name is unclear (despite what English Wikipedia claims), but it translates to âIntestine Townâ.
Thankfully they are located kinda central-north, not in the northernmost city district⌠which bears the modern day name of Darmstadt-Wixhausen (Intestine Town - Wanking Home).
In the southern outskirts of Darmstadt is the beautiful castle Frankenstein, which (despite what English Wikipedia claims) has nothing whatsoever to do with the monster creator of the same name.
Merck is beefing up its semiconductor production and research and development capabilities in Taiwan to meet growing local and global demand for semiconductors.
Supply chain challenges have beset the industry, Beckmann said.
âOur investment project will help resolve these issues and ensure a strong and high-quality supply chain,â he added.
âŚ
âThe Mega Site will include Merckâs entire line of semiconductor material solutions, including thin film, special gases and other specialized materials,â Merck said in a news release. âIn addition, Merckâs current production facilities in Kaohsiung will be expanded.â
Do you think this investment is related to the TSMC project?
Almost certainly they are related. Besides, I believe Kaohsiung has more space to develop than the North. They are putting plants almost everywhere now even developing into Miaoli. These electronics plants are huge energy and water hogs .
Unfortunately the referendum that just occurred didnât really explain to voters the energy demands of Taiwan, how it increases the carbon footprint, what is really happening here in terms of energy supply and demand . The paradigm of accepting increased industrial demand backed by increased fossil fuel energy use every year is just wrong. There needs to be a hard limit and an annual decrease baked-in.
The referendum would be better off setting hard limits on fossil fuel use and giving the government leeway on how to achieve this.
According to the article, thatâs the main reason.
But I wonder how it works when theyâre a supplier.
Customers can get access to TSMCâs chips when theyâre close.
Thatâs how Mediatek was able to shove Qualcomm to the side during the pandemic.
And how Acer and ASUS were able to keep supply going.
Do they co-locate? I didnât check. Nevertheless I believe thatâs kind of how it works, the contractors handle their various areas of expertise and TSMC integrates it together.
These big investments are really good.
Do wonder how we are going to power all these new science park though. It seems like nearly every city is building or expanding its science park now, and the government doesnât have much of an answer outside of ĺĽćłäşĺ¤Şĺ¤
These investments are great for Kaohsiung.
But in general these semiconductor and electronics factories use incredible amounts of water . They are seeking out farmland areas now to tap the water supplies. I saw it in Taichung county and now I see it happening in Miaoli. With the corrupt local governments itâs pretty easy to do. They just seem to have no limits. The most precous resource is probably fresh water but the folks in Miaoli are too dumb to realise what they are sitting on. They give it away for almost nothing to Hsinchu and the factories.
i havenât followed that clearly, but the science park in Tainan is going to triple in size(shooting from hip here). They are building another couple in Hsinchu.
All of this is great, but unless missed something dont see the plans for water and power
This. Thatâs been one of the factors why the South has not kept up with the Northâwater supply issues are real, and will almost certainly get worse as temperatures and the climate continue to change.
Guy
Perfect time to turn off the nuclear reactors.