TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) said Friday (May 21) it would raise production of micro control units (MCU) by 60 percent compared to last year in order to help resolve the global automotive chip shortage.

The announcement came after the company, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, attended a virtual meeting chaired by the United States Department of Commerce, CNA reported. The global chip shortage has been troubling the car industry for months, with some automakers having to delay production or even suggesting the launch of less electronically sophisticated vehicles.

TSMC said it had already taken measures to alleviate the automotive chip shortage by reallocating production capacity from other types of semiconductors to car chips. The company also took part in several virtual meetings attended by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and designed to persuade Taiwanese and other chipmakers to do more.

Planned MCU production levels would also be 30 percent higher than in 2019, before shortages occurred. Modern, just-in-time supply chain management systems could prevent such problems from happening again in the future, according to the Taiwan company.