No that's not correct. This is all about one smaller Taiwan Labour Union demanding unreasonable pay which would equate to $1M per worker up from about 80k. Obviously the company isnt going to pay it. Who would so management have said , OK, you plan to strike and disrupt us, we will not expand the plant. It's a few billion expansion not a new build.
They've already reached an agreement with the larger union, but a smaller union representing fewer than 3,000 workers is challenging it despite substantial proposed pay increases.
Micron is demonstrating that future investment isn't guaranteed if labour disputes continue and I applaud it. Existing production is unaffected, and the suspended plant wasn't due to open until 2028.
Look at Micron's wider investment programme(250b so 2% in this case is immaterial):
Location
Planned investment
USA – New York, Idaho, Virginia and R&D
$200bn
Singapore – NAND and HBM expansion
$31bn
Japan – Hiroshima expansion
$9.3bn
Taiwan – Tongluo acquisition and expansion
$1.8bn acquisition, plus expansion
Taiwan – Taoyuan suspended project
$3–4.5bn
These are multi-year programmes, not all committed expenditure, and include R&D.
The suspended project is tiny relative to Micron's global expansion ambitions. If the dispute isn't resolved, Micron can redirect future capital elsewhere. And any disruption in supply will only cause prices to price so it's a win either way.
