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TSMC considering venture into chip packing and testin

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest chipmaker by contract, said yesterday it was considering expanding into the testing and packaging business and may build a new plant to spur growth.

The Hsinchu-based company’s comments came after the Chinese-language newspaper Commercial Times reported yesterday that the company planned to build a new plant in Tungluo (銅鑼) Township, Miaoli County, to provide chip packaging and testing service.

Other Chinese-language newspapers, including the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) and the Apple Daily also carried similar reports yesterday. The reports said TSMC was interested in leasing a plot of land in Tungluo and might start constructing a factory there in the first half of next year at the earliest.

TSMC spokesman Tzeng Jin-hao (曾晉皓) said the company had not filed any application to lease the land in Tungluo from the administration of Hsinchu Science Park.

However, it has filed an application to lease a 1.2-hectare land in Chunan (竹南) Township, Miaoli County, from the Hsinchu park administration last month for future plant expansion.

“We are considering taking new measures [regarding packaging and testing business] to provide better services for our customers and to stimulate growth,” Tzeng said by telephone.

Those new measures include building a new plant or buying new equipment and providing the service at existing plants, he said.

No final decision has been made yet, he said.

“Primarily, we will provide new [packaging and testing] service,” Tzeng said.

TSMC is developing advanced, or wafer level, packaging and testing technologies that are expected to play a bigger role in semiconductor manufacturing when technologies move to the next generation, he said.

TSMC cannot wholly rely on its partners to provide the service, Tzeng said.

In January, TSMC said it planned to spend US$1.8 billion on new equipment this year, down about 30 percent from last year.
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