RISING TECH SPEND
Working from home and the resulting surge in the digital economy has driven demand for semiconductors, leaving a shortage that is reshaping investment into the sector. South Korea plans to spend roughly $450 billion, led by Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc., to build the world’s biggest chipmaking base over the next decade.
In Japan, manufacturers facing the chip crunch are leading a recovery in capital investment. Rohm Co, a chipmaker whose customers include Toyota Motor Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co., is “making large investments” for the next fiscal year in addition to 70 billion yen ($637 million) already set aside for the current year ending in March 2022.” We will be too late unless we make pre-emptive moves,” Chief Executive Officer Isao Matsumoto said in an Aug. 25 interview. The Kyoto-based chip maker has factories in China, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand and Philippines as well as domestic ones. “The pandemic presented us with various risks,” Matsumoto said. “We want to disperse our manufacturing bases.”