Winbond will invest NT$335 billion in 12-inch wafer plant in Kaohsiung Science Park

Source: https://en.ctimes.com.tw/DispNews.asp?O=HK19784TNNISAA00NM

Winbond to Establish Factory in Kaohsiung to Manufacture Niche Type DRAM and Flash Memory



By Korbin Lan
Published: Sep 07,2017

Taiwan's Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) announced yesterday that semiconductor manufacturer Windbond's application to establish a factory to manufacture Niche Type Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) and Flash Memory products has been approved.

Winbond is currently one of the few companies in the market with the capacity to develop both DRAM and Flash Memory. Nevertheless, the global market demand for memory is currently surging with their 12-inch factory in Taichung is nearly at full capacity. As a result, Winbond applied to establish a new factory this year.

MOST pointed out that Winbond's new factory in southern Taiwan has the potential to create nearly one thousand new employment opportunities and will make the southern semiconductor manufacturing base more complete.

MOST also emphasized that the government is doing everything in their power to assist manufacturers in matters related to land, water, and electricity. MOST will also provide support in the training of workers and technological development.

Source: http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aeco/201806110010.aspx

Ground breaking at Winbond Kaohsiung plant set for September

2018/06/11 15:37:47


Winbond Electronics Corp. Chair Arthur Yu-cheng Chiao

June 11 (CNA) Winbond Electronics Corp. said Monday it plans to break ground on its new memory chip plant, an investment of more than NT$300 billion (US$10.06 billion) in Kaohsiung, in September.

At an annual general meeting held on Monday, Winbond Chairman and CEO Arthur Yu-cheng Chiao (焦佑鈞) said the new investment is in the planning stage after which the company will seek approval from its board to start construction in September.

Chiao said Winbond is looking to install production equipment in the new Kaohsiung plant in 2020, but no information about when the new facility will start production was immediately available.

Winbond announced in September 2017 that it will invest NT$335 billion to build a 12-inch wafer plant in the Kaohsiung section of the Southern Taiwan Science Park to roll out wafers for production of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips and flash memory chips.

The new plant will focus on producing specialty DRAMs which command higher profit margins than those of standard DRAMs. Winbond is one of only a handful of memory chip makers in the world to own both DRAM and flash memory chip production technology.

The Winbond investment is the second largest in the Southern Taiwan Science Park, which houses many of Taiwan's high-tech giants, following a wafer foundry plant for the advanced 3 nanometer process announced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's largest contract chip maker, last year with an investment estimated at more than NT$500 billion.

TSMC's new foundry plant will be located in the Tainan section of the science park.

Winbond's new 12-inch wafer plant is expected to create almost 1,000 new jobs in Kaohsiung and boost Taiwan's competitive edge in the global semiconductor market, while the investment is likely to help the Southern Taiwan Science Park expand its semiconductor cluster, in particular in the Kaohsiung section.

Winbond made the announcement at a time when memory chips are in tight supply on the global market, which has seen memory chip prices rise.

At the shareholder meeting, Chiao said there is plenty of room for the global memory chip market to grow over the next 10 years and through the new investment in Kaohsiung the company will be better placed to meet rising demand.

At the meeting, shareholders approved a project in which Winbond will issue a NT$1 cash dividend for each share held by shareholders for the company's 2017 earnings per share of NT$1.54.

Bucking consolidation on the main board on Monday, shares in Winbond rose 0.73 percent to close at NT$20.65 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, where the weighted index ended the session 0.06 percent lower.

(By Chang Chien-chung and Frances Huang)

Kaohsiung 高雄 가오슝 เกาสง
Taiwan 台湾 대만 ไต้หวัน

Source: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2018/08/18/2003698701

Sat, Aug 18, 2018

Winbond to invest NT$20.37 billion in Kaohsiung fab

By Lisa Wang / Staff reporter

Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子), the world’s No. 3 NOR flash memorychip supplier by volume, yesterday said its board of directors had approved a plan to invest NT$20.37 billion (US$661 million) to build a 12-inch fab in Kaohsiung to support growth.

The construction of the fab is to begin in the fourth quarter of this year, Winbond said in a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing.

The investment is part of the Hsinchu-based firm’s capacity expansion scheme, which Winbond announced in September last year and is to cost NT$335 billion over the next 15 years

The chipmaker has not invested in any new factories since 2004 amid volatile supply and demand.

Winbond last month said it expected a rosy outlook for the next three years, but that the availability of new capacity would be the company’s main constraint.

“We are seeing demand from tier-one customers increasing faster for certain DRAM [memory chips]. That is one of the reasons that Winbond needs to build a new fab fast,” company president Chan Tung-yi (詹東義) told investors last month.

Chan said the NOR flash memorychip market would grow more than 10 percent annually over next few years, while major chipmakers are trying hard to keep up with the pace of demand due to technology hurdles, he said.

Without the new plant, Winbond would only be able to rely on technology migration to expand its capacity.

At last month’s investors conference, the company said it would convert its DRAM manufacturing process technology to 38 nanometers this year, from 46 nanometers, and would begin producing next-generation 25 nanometer chips in small volumes in the fourth quarter.

By early next year, Winbond said its monthly capacity would increase to 54,000 wafers, up 12.5 percent from 48,000 wafers.

The capacity expansion would help support Winbond’s growth next year and in 2020, the chipmaker said.

Kaohsiung 高雄 가오슝 เกาสง
Taiwan 台湾 대만 ไต้หวัน