Sat, May 18, 2002 page18

• Taiwan's chipmakers expanding

  RECOVERY A global shift toward made-to-order chipmakers means that companies in Taiwan and China will invest more this year while those elsewhere will invest less

  • BLOOMBERG
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  Taiwanese and Chinese chipmakers are the only ones that will boost spending this year because more manufacturing is shifting to made-to-order companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufact-uring Co (TSMC, 台積電), a researcher said.

  Taiwan chipmakers will increase spending this year by 53 percent to US$6.4 billion from US$4.2 billion a year ago, becoming the largest investors in Asia, said Aida Jebens, an analyst with VLSI Research Inc.

  Spending by chipmakers in China, Singapore and Malaysia, 90 percent of which is accounted for by Chinese companies, will rise 52 percent this year to US$6.1 billion, Jebens said. Foundries, which make chips on contract, are preparing for a recovery in chip demand that will strengthen in the second half, she said.

  "Most of the growth will be in the chip-foundry business," Jebens said. Global investment will fall to US$36.9 billion from US$39.3 billion a year ago, she said. Foundries include companies such as TSMC, the world's biggest, United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), also based in Taiwan, and Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd (特許) of Singapore.

  TSMC has said it will invest US$2.5 billion for expansion this year, compared with US$2.2 billion last year. UMC, its nearest rival, said it plans to spend US$1.6 billion this year.

  Both companies recently increased investment plans to meet better-than-expected demand.

  Taiwan has six companies that make computer memory chips, almost all of which are investing in expansion this year.

  Chartered Semiconductor, the third-largest company in the foundry business, said it plans to spend US$500 million this year, increasing its original budget by US$100 million. The company spent US$490 million last year. Singapore has other companies that make memory chips and other semiconductors.

  Asia, including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and other nations in the region, will account for US$21.4 billion, or 54.4 percent, of total spending this year, VLSI Research said.

  Japanese chipmakers will cut investment to US$6.2 billion from US$10.9 billion a year ago, a drop of 43 percent, VLSI Research said.

  Spending in South Korea will fall to US$2.8 billion from $3.3 billion a year ago, a fall of 17 percent, the market research company said.

  Still, Samsung Electronics Co, the world's largest maker of computer memory chips, said it will increase spending at its semiconductor division to 4 trillion won (US$3.2 billion) this year from 2.5 trillion won last year.

  Samsung includes 1.5 trillion won of spending on its liquid-crystal display business in the semiconductor investment total.

  Hynix Semiconductor Inc, the third-largest maker of memory chips, said it will spend 1.3 trillion won on new facilities and equipment this year. That's up from the 300 billion won it spent last year when it needed two multi-billion dollar bailouts from its creditors to keep it in operation.

  Korean made-to-order chipmaker Anam Semiconductor Inc, which said it has about 5 percent of the world market, will reduce spending to US$40 million this year from US$60 million last year.

  Dongbu Electronics, which entered the foundry business last year, said it will cut spending to 500 billion won from 950 billion won last year.

  Applied Materials Inc, the world's biggest supplier of chipmaking equipment, said in March it expected Asia to account for 60 percent of global investment this year. Applied Materials forecast that by 2010, companies in China and Taiwan will make about 40 percent of the world's chips, almost doubling from the current level.

  China's Semiconductor Man-ufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯國際集成電路) and Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (宏力半導體) are some of the latest rivals of TSMC and UMC. While SMIC started production last year, Grace, founded by the son of Chinese President Jiang Zemin (江澤民), plans to start production next year.

  The two Chinese companies are led by management teams who previously worked in Taiwan. Richard Chang (張汝京), the chief executive officer of SMIC, was formerly the head of a Taiwan foundry that was acquired by TSMC. Nasa Tsai, the president of Grace, previously worked for Mosel Vitelic Inc (茂矽), a Taiwan memory-chip maker.

  VLSI Research counts chip-equipment makers Applied Materials and Tokyo Electron Ltd, the world's second-largest supplier, as clients and sources of information.

  North America, which will remain the biggest spender this year at US$10 billion, is cutting investment from US$11 billion last year, VLSI Research said.
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