Many cleanrooms, equipment, and facility vendors from Taiwan will join TSMC in building a semiconductor supply chain hub in the United States. Due to a scarcity of 8-inch foundry, the costs of DRAMs and network and industrial ICs are expected to rise. On the EV front, automakers throughout the world are forming joint ventures or forming new alliances to safeguard their battery supply.

More More Taiwanese companies have joined TSMC in Arizona’s IC industry cluster:

According to industry sources, Taiwanese suppliers are interested in joining TSMC in the Arizona IC manufacturing cluster, where the foundry is building an advanced wafer fab. According to the sources, TSMC’s Arizona fab project has enticed more of the foundry’s ecosystem partners, including cleanroom and other equipment and facility vendors, to establish operations in the state.

DRAM spot prices are rising:

According to industry sources, DRAM spot market prices have been rising since December 2021, indicating a bullish tendency for the near-term price trajectory. Since December, mainstream DDR4 spot prices, for example, have been going upward. According to the sources, prices fell by 1-2 percent in November after plummeting by 5-10 percent in October.

Chip costs will rise in 1Q22 due to a lack of 8-inch foundry capacity:

According to IC distributor sources, suppliers of power management ICs, networking chips, and industrial and automotive MCUs are still able to raise prices in the first quarter of 2022 because 8-inch fab capacity remains scarce.

SSangyong Motor and BYD have teamed up to develop electric vehicle batteries:

In an effort to extend the presence of electric vehicles in its product lines, SSangyong Motor is collaborating with BYD to develop EV batteries that will be used in the upcoming U100 EV.

According to Korean-language news site Dailian, the South Korean carmaker, which is owned by Indian automotive firm Mahindra, has inked a MoU with FinDreams Industry, a battery manufacturer owned by Chinese carmaker BYD, to produce batteries for the U100 and build an EV modular platform.

The cooperation allows SSangyong to secure a steady supply of batteries for its electric vehicles while also reducing the amount of time it needs to conduct research on its own. BYD now provides batteries to a number of OEMs.

According to Korean-language news outlet Khan, SSangyong has been in talks with Edison Motors, a South Korean e-bus manufacturer, to sell its firm after declaring bankruptcy with a Seoul court. Following four delays by SSangyong in filing restructuring plans, the acquisition has been postponed until March 2022.