A visitor stops at the exhibition booth of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co during the World Semiconductor Conference in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, in June 2021. (LONG WEI / FOR CHINA DAILY)

SACRAMENTO, United States - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC) said Thursday that production at its first planned factory in the US state of Arizona would be postponed until 2025.

TSMC chairman Mark Liu confirmed the delay during an earnings conference, saying that the company does not have enough skilled workers to install advanced equipment at the facility, according to local media.

He said the company is sending skilled technicians from outside the United States to the Arizona facility, but did not disclose the number.

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The company currently faces multiple challenges in running the US facility, the biggest of which include the shortage of skilled workers and higher expenses in the United States than in Asia

The world's leading chip contract manufacturer began building a complex in Arizona in 2021 and originally planned to start mass production in late 2024. A second fab producing smaller and more complex 3nm chips is scheduled to open in 2026.

The company currently faces multiple challenges in running the US facility, the biggest of which include the shortage of skilled workers and higher expenses in the United States than in Asia.

A Deloitte report this year estimated that the US semiconductor industry will face a shortage of 70,000 to 90,000 workers in the next few years.

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The costs of owning a new chip factory in the United States are roughly 30 to 50 percent higher than those in Asia, said a 2020 report by the Semiconductor Industry Association