ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技) plans to spend an additional NT$230 billion (US$7 billion) in the next three years to build two plants in central Taiwan as it tries to match the expansion plans of rivals including Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體).
ProMOS, the nation's third-biggest maker of memory chips for computers, has applied for a parcel of land in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區) and plans to complete construction in three years, Ben Tseng (曾邦助), vice president and spokesman of the Hsinchu-based company, said yesterday.
The Chinese-language Eco-nomic Daily News reported yesterday that ProMOS' 12-inch Fab No. 5 at the same park may not be able to start as scheduled at the end of this year or early next year because of problems with land acquisition.
Tseng said yesterday that the company hopes to start construction around the end of the year, adding that the project will raise the company's number of factories in central Taiwan to four.
Rival Powerchip, the nation's largest memory-chip maker, and partner Elpida Memory Inc said last month that they plan to build a ¥1.6 trillion (US$14 billion) factory in Taiwan as Microsoft Corp's new Windows Vista operating system boosts demand for dynamic random access memory, or DRAM.
ProMOS has one plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park and plans to start test runs at a second plant by end of the year, Tseng said, declining to say how much the company has invested in the two facilities.
The chipmaker also has two factories in the Hsinchu Science Park, according to the ProMOS Web site.
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