onehome

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (TSMC), a major supplier of made-to-order computer chips, will invest US$10 billion in Shanghai's Songjiang District over the coming decade, local authorities in the city said.
"The deal has been agreed and the total chip-making investment (by the Taiwan corporation) will be no less than US$10 billion," Wang Wentao, the district's vice-governor, said at an investment fair held at the weekend.
Wang, who is in charge of the district's industrial planning, added that such a huge investment will be made in stages.
The vice-governor's announcement was the first time that the local authorities had confirmed the corporation's overall investment plan for the Chinese mainland, investment that the Taiwan authorities had very much tried to discourage.
According to authorities in Shanghai, the Taiwan corporation's Shanghai factory involves initial investment of US$1.11 billion and will start production in the fourth quarter of next year, with monthly production of 30,000 200-millimetre (8-inch) chips.
The construction of the first batch of workshops was completed by the end of last month and the trial runs of the Shanghai factory's chip-manufacturing facilities will be finished by next June, said Wang.
Corporation Chairman Morris Chang told the media in Taipei that the 200-millimetre chips will be the main product made at the corporation's Shanghai plant, targeting the fast-growing consumer electronics integrated-circuit (IC) market.
As the Chinese mainland increasingly becomes a world-leading manufacturing base for electronics, demand will surge for IC products, especially in the personal-computer and cell-phone sectors, said Lin Jing, a senior IC engineer with the Shanghai Zhangjiang High-Tech Park.
Shanghai is currently the mainland's leading semiconductor manufacturing base.
According to statistics from the Shanghai Integrated-Circuits Industry Association, Shanghai has built seven chip-production lines, including three for the internationally prevalent 200-millimetre chips. Another four 200-millimetre chip-production lines are under construction.
The Shanghai Zhangjiang High-Tech Park, in the city's Pudong New Area, has become the Chinese mainland's largest and most advanced chip-manufacturing base, hosting 66 chip-related companies with combined investment of US$8 billion, according to the latest statistics from the industry association.
A complete IC industry chain has been formed in the park, covering manufacturing, research and development, sealing, packaging and testing.
The city's largest chip developer - the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (Shanghai) - has reportedly invested US$1.47 billion since 2001 in building three production lines in the park.
Richard Chang, the semiconductor corporation's chief executive, said earlier this year in Shanghai that his company had decided to invest US$400 million more in the park to further increase its production capacity to up to 60,000 chips per month by the end of this year.


		查看/發表評論