Chip testing and packaging company Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密) yesterday said it plans to invest NT$80 billion (US$2.86 billion) to build a new plant in Changhua County’s Erlin Township (二林).
SPIL is investing in new capacity as 5G-related applications and an expanding stay-at-home economy have boosted demand for chip testing and packaging services, and to ease persistent constraints in the semiconductor supply chain.
A subsidiary of ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), SPIL said in a statement that the first phase of the construction would be completed next year.
Photo courtesy of Siliconware Precision Industries Co
“The plant’s groundbreaking today is just the first of a series of capacity expansions,” SPIL chairman Tsai Chi-wen (蔡祺文) said in the statement.
The Erlin plant would be a major base providing high-end chip testing and packaging services. It should help SPIL fend off growing competition in the wake of capacity buildup in the US and Europe to reduce dependence on Asia, Taiwan in particular, for semiconductors, the statement said.
The new plant would create 7,500 jobs after reaching full capacity in the next eight to 10 years, the statement said.
It would occupy 14.5 hectares, three times larger than its existing plant in the county.
ASE is the world’s biggest supplier of chip testing and packaging services.
The Kaohsiung-based company told investors last month that a supply-demand imbalance continues to affect the whole semiconductor chain.
“That is why many of our customers have signed long-term agreements,” ASE said at the time.
Taiwan’s chip testing and packaging services providers are forecast to see production value grow 8.28 percent to NT$575.2 billion this year, compared with last year’s NT$531.2 billion, the Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute (MIC, 資策會) said yesterday.
Overall, Taiwan’s semiconductor industry is to grow its production value at an annual pace of 11.4 percent this year to NT$3.26 trillion.
MIC attributed the growth to strong demand for notebook computers, high-performance computing devices, automotive electronics and Internet-of-things products.
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is reportedly making another pass at Nissan Motor Co, as the Japanese automaker's tie-up with Honda Motor Co falls apart. Nissan shares rose as much as 6 percent after Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) instructed former Nissan executive Jun Seki to connect with French carmaker Renault SA, which holds about 36 percent of Nissan’s stock. Hon Hai, the Taiwanese iPhone-maker also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), was exploring an investment or buyout of Nissan last year, but backed off in December after the Japanese carmaker penned a deal
WASHINGTON POLICY: Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs are tipped to hit shipments of small parcels, cutting export growth by 1.3 percentage points The decision by US President Donald Trump to ban Chinese companies from using a US tariff loophole would hit tens of billions of dollars of trade and reduce China’s economic growth this year, according to new estimates by economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. According to Nomura’s estimates, last year companies such as Shein (希音) and PDD Holdings Inc’s (拼多多控股) Temu shipped US$46 billion of small parcels to the US to take advantage of the rule that allows items with a declared value under US$800 to enter the US tariff-free. Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs would slash such
‘LEGACY CHIPS’: Chinese companies have dramatically increased mature chip production capacity, but the West’s drive for secure supply chains offers a lifeline for Taiwan When Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) entered a deal with the eastern Chinese city of Hefei in 2015 to set up a new chip foundry, it hoped the move would help provide better access to the promising Chinese market. However, nine years later, that Chinese foundry, Nexchip Semiconductor Corp (合晶集成), has become one of its biggest rivals in the legacy chip space, leveraging steep discounts after Beijing’s localization call forced Powerchip to give up the once-lucrative business making integrated circuits for Chinese flat panels. Nexchip is among Chinese foundries quickly winning market share in the crucial US$56.3 billion industry of so-called legacy
RSS