Foxsemicon Integrated Technology Inc (京鼎) yesterday said its new factory had entered operation and would generate NT$3 billion (US$95.15 million) in production value at full utilization.
The semiconductor equipment component manufacturing arm of Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) in January invested NT$2.4 billion to build the fab in Miaoli County’s Jhunan Township (竹南) amid a thriving semiconductor industry worldwide.
The new factory is expected to create 400 new jobs, Foxsemicon said in a statement.
Photo courtesy of Foxsemicon Integrated Technology Inc
Although the world’s memorychip industry in the past few months started showing some weakness amid sagging demands for PCs and smartphones, Foxsemicon expects the semiconductor equipment sector’s growth not to be dented by the trend.
Demands for semiconductors used in artificial intelligence, 5G devices, high-performing computing applications and electric vehicles remain robust, company spokesman Frank Chen (陳鎮福) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
The world’s major chipmakers, including memorychip makers, are still building new factories and expanding capacity to capture future growth, he said.
“The semiconductor equipment supply chain has not felt the chill of winter yet,” Chen said.
The world’s major semiconductor equipment suppliers, such as Applied Materials Inc and Lam Research Corp, are unable to keep pace with customers’ demand, as the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors weighing on logistics lengthen lead times, he said.
Foxsemicon counts Applied Materials as one of its customers, the company’s annual report said.
The world’s fab equipment spending is expected to grow about 9 percent annually to an all-time high of US$99 billion this year, with Taiwanese firms topping the equipment spending list, international trade group SEMI said last week.
SEMI also forecast that global spending on semiconductor equipment next year would remain in high gear at about US$97 billion.
“We retain our forecast of double-digit percentage [revenue] growth in the full year. So far we have performed better than that,” Chen said.
The Miaoli-based company saw revenue soar 18.9 percent to NT$9.26 billion in the first eight months of this year, compared with NT$7.79 billion in the same period last year.
Foxsemicon said that its local fabs and capacity help it boost supply resilience amid global geopolitical tensions and pandemic restrictions.
The stock price of Foxsemicon rallied 1.57 percent to NT$193.5 yesterday, outperforming the TAIEX, which gained 0.66 percent, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
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