Memorychip maker Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子) is ramping up recruitment efforts to meet increasing demand as its new fab in Kaohsiung is set to increase production next year, the Taichung-based firm said yesterday.
The chipmaker is planning to hire more than 400 engineers with various specializations for its fabs in Kaohsiung, Taichung, Hsinchu and Taipei, Winbond said in a statement.
The Kaohsiung fab is set to produce a small volume of DRAM chips in July next year in preparation for regular production in October, Winbond said.
Photo courtesy of Winbond Electronics Corp
The capacity expansion comes amid the chipmaker’s struggles to keep up with demand and more customers signaling interest in long-term supply deals.
The Kaohsiung 12-inch plant would have a target capacity of 35,000 wafers per month, with Winbond planning to install equipment in several stages, it said.
The firm is planning to invest NT$335 billion (US$12.08 billion) over a 10-year period, it added.
In the initial stage, the fab would be capable of making 10,000 wafers per month, using 25-nanometer technology, Winbond said.
Once the new facility starts regular production, it would boost the firm’s overall production capacity by 15 to 25 percent, Winbond said.
The chipmaker is planning to spend NT$11.8 billion on new facilities and chipmaking equipment this year, up from NT$790 million last year.
Winbond said it expects the capital expenditures to remain high next year as most manufacturing equipment would be installed then.
Winbond makes flash memory chips and DRAM chips, which each accounted for about half of the company’s memorychip revenue of NT$14.49 billion in the second quarter of this year.
The company is to conduct job interviews online next week, as it seeks to reduce in-person contacts amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it said.
Winbond has increased employee benefits to retain and attract chipmaking talent, as most local electronics companies, semiconductor firms in particular, are struggling to fill job vacancies, it said.
Since July, Winbond has been offering paid leaves for employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and deal with pandemic-specific needs, the chipmaker said, adding that COVID-19 treatment is covered in its in-house health insurance policy.
CHIP WAR: Tariffs on Taiwanese chips would prompt companies to move their factories, but not necessarily to the US, unleashing a ‘global cross-sector tariff war’ US President Donald Trump would “shoot himself in the foot” if he follows through on his recent pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese and other foreign semiconductors entering the US, analysts said. Trump’s plans to raise tariffs on chips manufactured in Taiwan to as high as 100 percent would backfire, macroeconomist Henry Wu (吳嘉隆) said. He would “shoot himself in the foot,” Wu said on Saturday, as such economic measures would lead Taiwanese chip suppliers to pass on additional costs to their US clients and consumers, and ultimately cause another wave of inflation. Trump has claimed that Taiwan took up to
A start-up in Mexico is trying to help get a handle on one coastal city’s plastic waste problem by converting it into gasoline, diesel and other fuels. With less than 10 percent of the world’s plastics being recycled, Petgas’ idea is that rather than letting discarded plastic become waste, it can become productive again as fuel. Petgas developed a machine in the port city of Boca del Rio that uses pyrolysis, a thermodynamic process that heats plastics in the absence of oxygen, breaking it down to produce gasoline, diesel, kerosene, paraffin and coke. Petgas chief technology officer Carlos Parraguirre Diaz said that in
Japan intends to closely monitor the impact on its currency of US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs and is worried about the international fallout from the trade imposts, Japanese Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato said. “We need to carefully see how the exchange rate and other factors will be affected and what form US monetary policy will take in the future,” Kato said yesterday in an interview with Fuji Television. Japan is very concerned about how the tariffs might impact the global economy, he added. Kato spoke as nations and firms brace for potential repercussions after Trump unleashed the first salvo of
SUPPORT: The government said it would help firms deal with supply disruptions, after Trump signed orders imposing tariffs of 25 percent on imports from Canada and Mexico The government pledged to help companies with operations in Mexico, such as iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), shift production lines and investment if needed to deal with higher US tariffs. The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday announced measures to help local firms cope with the US tariff increases on Canada, Mexico, China and other potential areas. The ministry said that it would establish an investment and trade service center in the US to help Taiwanese firms assess the investment environment in different US states, plan supply chain relocation strategies and
RSS