It was the lead story on Economic Daily News on October 19, reporting that TSMC is going to set up a wholly-owned 12-inch wafter foundry and to take orders locally in Nanjing, China by 2018 in an attempt to actively pursue 16nm FinFET chip production.

In this regard, TSMC noted that as what they have commented in the investor conference on October 15, a new semiconductor plant in mainland China is under consideration, haven’t made a final decision and no timetable for it.

Elizabeth Sun, Deputy Speaker of TSMC emphasized that once confirmed on it, the company would make an official announcement. The company will not comment on speculation.

Meanwhile, the company said on the investor conference last week its 10nm and 7nm process technology developed smoothly, and will launch as scheduled. The new generation of products will not only improve the performance, but also further reduce power consumption.

Moreover, the 16nm technology, 10 nm process increase 2.1 times of density, the performance up to 20 percent and power consumption can be reduced by 40 percent. The performance of 7nm process can be further improved.

Last but not least, Taiwan's economics ministry on September said it will allow a maximum of three companies to set up a wholly-owned 12-inch wafer foundry in China, easing rules that limited such investments only to joint ventures.