Winbond still mulling sites

Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦) confirmed yesterday that it will not build its first 12-inch wafer plant in the Tainan science park but will finalize possible locations within the next six months.

The planned wafer plant, a project scheduled to begin in the second half of the year, is being shelved by the company due to concerns that vibration from the future north-south high-speed rail project will affect highly-sensitive chipmaking equipment if the plant were built on the original site in the Tainan Science-based Industrial Park (台南科學園區).

Arthur Chiao (焦佑鈞), chairman of Winbond, said yesterday that Winbond is now looking for possible sites in Taiwan -- including Tainan Technology Industrial Park (台南科技工業區), and other industrial parks located at Luchu (路竹) in Kaohsiung or Lungtan (龍潭) in Taoyuan -- to build the plant. "It is almost for sure that we will move out of the Tainan park," Chiao said.

According to Chiao, Winbond has concluded that there is no reason to risk the company's NT$120 billion investment on the original Tainan site.

Chiao also said the company needs to raise more fresh capital for the planned 12-inch wafer plant during the current down-cycle of DRAM market.

Taiwan's third-largest chipmaker also said yesterday that its January revenue of NT$ 2.434 billion, was down 31 percent from the same month last year.

DRAM prices, which account for roughly half of Winbond's output, have plunged to record lows in the past six months after expected strong demand for PCs failed to materialize in the second half of last year, Chiao said the company will focus more of its business on logic IC -- from 30 percent of its revenues last year to 50 percent for this year.

Besides, the company will also move into production of flash memory chips this year.

"There is a great demand for flash memory for the third generation mobile phone and other consumer electronic products," said Chiao.