The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is looking to Canada for LNG as the world’s biggest producer of semiconductor chips experiences tremendous growth, the Canadian Energy Centre reported on December 18.

TSMC produces over 90% of the world’s advanced chips. The firm has seen enormous growth in 2024, with its stock rising more than 80%, setting the company up for its best year since 1999.

Artificial Intelligence’s (AI) growing applications are attracting fervor, but industry experts are raising alarm about the high demand for electricity that AI requires. In particular, the AI boom, especially the growth of AI data centres, is increasingly being linked to sparking growth in natural gas demand.

While TSMC is by far Taiwan’s biggest producer of semiconductor chips, a number of other large firms such as United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), MediaTek, Realtek Semiconductor, and Foxconn are all key producers. In total, Taiwanese corporations produce over 60% of the world’s semiconductors.

However, Taiwan is resource-poor and is one of the biggest importers of LNG. Moreover, as Taiwan moves forward towards reaching its target of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, Taipei is attempting to phase out coal-fired and nuclear power from its energy mix, further driving demand for LNG imports.

Currently, coal and nuclear power supply 42% and 6% respectively of Taiwan’s energy supply.

“We are trying to diversify the sources of power supply. We are looking at Canada and hoping that your natural gas, LNG, can help us,” Taiwan’s representative in Canada, Harry Tseng stated in a webcast hosted by Energy for a Secure Future. 

Canada is poised to make a splash in the global LNG export market in 2025 with the country’s flagship project LNG Canada, which is led by Shell, expected to ship its first cargo of the super-chilled fuel by summer.

Once the commissioning phase is completed, LNG Canada will boast an initial production capacity of 14mn tonnes per year (tpy).

Located on Canada’s west coast in Kitimat, British Columbia, the facility possesses an optimal location for shipping LNG to the large northeast Asian markets of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, with shipments to Tokyo requiring just 16 days.

In addition to LNG Canada, four other projects are in development on Canada’s west coast with all the LNG export terminals expected to come online before the end of 2030.