DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said it plans to spend an additional NT$19.71 billion (US$658.6 million) to boost its 20-nanometer process capacity, which would help increase overall shipments by 15 percent next year.
The spending would contribute to a total investment of NT$75.4 billion on a new 12-inch fab, which currently produces about 65,000 12-inch wafers per month, of which about 35,000 are 20-nanometer chips and the remainder are 30-nanometer chips.
“The extra capital expenditure will allow the company to next year increase bit shipment growth by 15 percent year-on-year,” Nanya Technology deputy spokesman Joseph Wu (吳志祥) said by telephone.
The growth would be slower than the worldwide DRAM market’s average annual growth of 20 percent.
Nanya Technology anticipates monthly output to climb to about 73,000 wafers per month from the second quarter of next year, with the output of 20-nanometer chips increasing to about 47,000 wafers per month, Wu said.
“The new outlay will not affect the company’s plan to grow bit growth by 48 percent annually this year,” he said.
“We plan to move in the equipment at end of this year or early next year,” he added.
The chipmaker plans to allocate its own cash to fund the capacity expansion.
Last quarter alone, Nanya Technology generated NT$5.87 billion in free cash flow after more than doubling its net profit to NT$7.23 billion from the same period last year.
The company said that 20-nanometer chips have become its major revenue source, contributing more than 60 percent to total revenue of NT$18.8 billion in the first three months of this year.
Separately yesterday, GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s third-largest silicon wafer maker, said net profit last quarter soared more than sevenfold from a year earlier to NT$2.78 billion, thanks to increasing demand and higher prices.
That translated into earnings per share of NT$6.36, up from NT$0.95 a year earlier.
The company reported net profit of NT$349 million in the first quarter of last year.
Last quarter’s net profit set an all-time high, as prices surged due to solid customer demand.
GlobalWafers said that it has clear order visibility through 2020.
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