Approved H1 outbound investments outpace entire 2023, led by TSMC

Taipei, July 16 (CNA) Taiwan's outbound investments in the first half of 2024 soared 170 percent from a year earlier, largely because of investments made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).

Approved outbound investments totaled US$24.19 billion during the January-June period, up 170 percent from a year earlier and surpassing the US$23.58 billion in outbound investments approved in all of 2023, data compiled by the MOEA's Department of Investment Review showed.

The number of approved outbound investment projects also rose 38.15 percent from a year earlier to 344 in the six-month period, the data indicated.

The surge in the overall investment amount in the first half of this year was largely driven by approvals of TSMC investments of US$5.26 billion and US$5.0 billion, respectively, into its joint venture Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing, Inc. and its U.S. subsidiary TSMC Arizona Corp.

To mitigate the risk of geopolitical tensions, the world's largest pure play foundry operator has aggressively diversified its production and has built or is in the process of building advanced wafer fabs in the U.S., Japan and Germany.

In addition to TSMC, semiconductor distributor WT Microelectronics Co. received approval to invest US$3.98 billion to acquire its Canadian counterpart Future Electronics Inc., the department said.

As companies diversify supply chains away from China, approved investment destined for Southeast Asia and South Asia also grew at a rapid clip, rising 113.23 percent in the first half of the year from the same period a year earlier to US$4.53 billion.

The increase was largely due to iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., also known as Foxconn globally, investing US$2.49 billion and NT$15 billion (US$461 million), respectively, to increase the paid-in capital in subsidiaries Foxconn Singapore Pte. Ltd. and Foxconn EV Singapore Holdings Pte. Ltd.

Vietnam and Thailand were the other main investment targets.

While Taiwanese outbound investment to most parts of the world increased, approved investments by Taiwanese companies in China fell 19.03 percent from a year earlier to US$1.55 billion, the data showed.

Also, direct investment by foreign companies in Taiwan during the six-month period plummeted 49.30 percent from a year earlier to US$3.25 billion, which the department attributed to a relatively high comparison base in the first half of 2023.

Approved investments from China totaled about US$16.37 million, down 1.74 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.

Since Taiwan lifted a ban on Chinese investments at the end of June 2009, the government has approved about US$2.61 billion in funds from China, with about US$754 million injected into the retail and wholesale sector and US$414 million put into the electronics component sector, according to the department.