TSMC wants to build Taichung fab

A Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區) official said the government has received an application from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to build a wafer plant in the park.

"TSMC submitted its operation proposal for our review and approval on Friday," Yang Wen-ke (楊文科), deputy director-general of the Provisional Office of Central Taiwan Science Park (中科籌備處), said in a phone interview yesterday.

The TSMC's plans for a new fab were reported yesterday by a Chinese-language newspaper.

TSMC, the world's largest made-to-order chipmaker, is expected to spend a total of NT$240 billion (US$7.5 billion) to build the fab to manufacture 12-inch wafers by using the most-advanced 65-nanometer and 45-nanometer technology, Yang said, citing the proposal.

The chipmaker expects to break ground for the plant in January 2007 and start production in August 2008, with shipment of 11,000 wafers per month, according to the proposal.

The planned fab is expected to ultimately ship 105,000 wafers per month when the three-stage expansion program is completed over the next five to 10 years, the proposal said.

TSMC has two 12-inch wafer fabs, one in the Hsinchu Science Industrial Park (新竹科學園區) and the other in the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學園區) in Tainan. It also has an 8-inch wafer plant at the Songjiang Industrial Park on the outskirts of Shanghai.

TSMC spokesman Tzeng Jinn-haw (曾晉皓) confirmed in a phone interview yesterday that the company has applied to build a fab in the Central Taiwan Science Park.

The company will not start its Taichung expansion until after its Fab-12 in Hsinchu and Fab-14 in Tainan become fully loaded, Tzeng said, declining to give a timeframe for the new proposal.