GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓) yesterday unveiled a new capacity expansion plan worth NT$100 billion (US$3.59 billion) as part of its effort to boost capacity and satisfy strong customer demand after its takeover of Germany’s Siltronic AG failed last week.
The world’s third-largest silicon wafer supplier expects the expansion plan to support its revenue growth over the next few years.
This year, revenue could grow by a double-digit percentage on an annual basis as raw wafer demand remains “quite good,” even with some special wafers in short supply, GlobalWafers said.
Photo: Fang Wei-jie, Taipei Times
“While the failed completion of our offer for Siltronic is disappointing, we have pursued a dual-track strategy from the beginning of the tender offer,” GlobalWafers chairwoman and CEO Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during a teleconference yesterday. “I am excited that we can now consider a broad range of options to advance technological development and enhance our capacities.”
The new capacity expansion plan consists of two parts — a new 300mm fab, or green field investments of US$2 billion, and brown field investments of US$1.6 billion on capacity expansion of factories in multiple sites throughout Asia, the US and Europe, Hsu said.
If the Siltronic deal had been given the green light, “our green field investments would be different in scale compared with our previous calculations,” she said.
GlobalWafers dismissed some investors’ concerns about possible oversupply in 2024, saying that new green energy investments worldwide would alleviate supply tightness as raw wafer demand continues to grow on the emergence of new applications.
“The fundamentals did not change at all during the past three months. It is very healthy, although some demand might dip a bit this year,” Hsu said. “Supply continues to be tight.”
“The planned new capacity is mostly for wafers in severe shortage,” she said. “I believe GlobalWafers will continue to be buoyed by the latest capacity expansion.”
Surges in manufacturing costs — in transportation, electricity, raw materials and labor — pose the greatest challenges for the company, Hsu said.
GlobalWafers plans to ramp up production in the new fab in 2024, along with adding capacity from existing factories in the second half of next year.
The company plans to expand capacity for polished wafers, epitaxial wafers, silicon-on-insulator wafers, float-zone wafers, silicon carbide wafers, gallium nitride-on-silicon wafers and other large next-generation products.
The failed Siltronic purchase would not be a barrier to other potential merger and acquisition targets, Hsu said.
However, the company is facing greater challenges in dealmaking, given GlobalWafers’ rising market share amid geopolitical tensions, she said.
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
RSS