GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s third-largest silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that its board of directors has decided to build a new advanced fab in South Korea for US$438 million to meet strong demand.
The much-anticipated fab, the company’s fifth 12-inch fab in Asia, is set to enter volume production in 2020, one year earlier than GlobalWafers’ original plan, it said.
The company said it plans to build a fab with production capacity of 150,000 12-inch wafers per month adjacent to an existing GlobalWafers fab in Cheonan, 80km south of Seoul.
“Demand is so strong that we have to build the new fab ahead of schedule. The business outlook remains intact,” GlobalWafers spokesperson Lee Chung-wei (李崇偉) told the Taipei Times by telephone, shrugging off market rumors about softening demand.
“The new fab will be fully utilized once it starts production based on the orders on hand. All our capacity is earmarked for clients with long-term supply relationships with the firm,” Lee said.
With Hynix SK Inc and Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電) recently breaking ground on new plants, silicon wafer demand should increase, Lee said, adding: “Those are potential orders for us.”
The uptake of artificial intelligence (AI), Internet-of-Things (IOT) and autonomous cars would increase demand for microprocessors and memory chips, and subsequently the consumption of silicon wafers, he said.
The Hsinchu-based company said its capacity is fully booked until 2020 and it would start to negotiate new supply contracts with clients for deliveries from 2021 to 2025.
The average selling prices of the company’s products would continue to increase, as prices for new contracts would likely be equal to, or slightly higher than current prices, the firm said in August.
GlobalWafers reported a 3.5 percent decline in revenue to NT$5.01 billion (US$162.45 million) last month, from a record-high NT$5.19 billion in revenue in August.
That brought the firm’s third-quarter revenue to an all-time high of NT$15.16 billion, up 5.5 percent from NT$14.37 billion in the second quarter of the year, GlobalWafers said yesterday.
The firm has seen its quarterly revenue break records for 11 straight quarters.
In the first nine months of the year, cumulative revenue totaled NT$43.44 billion, up 28.65 percent from same period last year.
GlobalWafers shares yesterday closed at NT$275 in Taipei trading, down 18.28 percent from last week’s close.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
RSS