Taiwan claims that Malaysia's assistance is required to resolve semiconductor shortages

According to Taiwan Economy Minister Wang Mei-hua, resolving the global scarcity of auto semiconductors requires Malaysia's assistance, particularly in packaging, a sector impacted by the country's Covid-19 restrictions.

As a major chip producer, Taiwan has been at the forefront of efforts to remedy the shortfall, which has caused car facilities all over the world to shut down.

Wang told Reuters in an interview late on Thursday (September 30) at her ministry that Taiwan could not solve the problem on its own since the supply chain is so complicated.

"The bottleneck is actually in Southeast Asia, particularly Malaysia, because the plants were all shut down for a spell," she explained.

The situation was particularly apparent in the case of car chip packaging, with Malaysian companies providing services that Taiwanese competitors did not, according to Wang.
"The priority now is for Malaysia to resume manufacturing as quickly as feasible.
I know that Malaysia began restoring manufacturing capacity in early September, and that capacity has now recovered to around 80%, so if their capacity can gradually return, this problem can be addressed."

Malaysia is home to suppliers and factories that serve semiconductor companies like STMicroelectronics and Infineon in Europe, as well as major automobile manufacturers like Toyota and Ford.