Prices of semiconductors could see a surge as Taiwan is set to charge "super consumers" such as TSMC as much as 30% more for electricity under the country's utilities pricing revision. A super-consumer is any entity that has drawn over 5 billion kWh over the past two years. The power company won't calculate this on the basis of the entire company, but its individual metering units. TSMC is spread across several manufacturing- and R&D facilities that are likely metered separately from each other. Prices for some of the smaller scale industrial consumers are only set to rise by 5% to 10%.

Taiwanese Minister of Economic Affairs Mei-Hua Wang tried to allay fears in the industry, in a recent comment pertaining to TSMC, saying that the foundry has implemented several energy conservation initiatives, is mainly an export-oriented company, and that even with the price hikes, electricity in Taiwan is among the cheapest in the world. Tom's Hardware provided more context. A kWh of electricity costs about 10 cents (USD $0.10) in Taiwan, in comparison to the state of Arizona, where it costs about 15 cents/kWh. Despite this, electricity is a key input cost for the semiconductor industry, and any price increase will have a direct impact on wafer costs. We'll have to wait and see by how much. Many Thanks to TumbleGeorge for the tip.