Semiconductor equipment and chemicals supplier Acter Group Co (聖暉) yesterday said it is accelerating its overseas expansion primarily in Japan and Southeast Asia this year as customers are building new fabs in reponse to robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI), 5G, servers and data centers.
Customers are diversifying their manufacturing sites geographically due to mounting geopolitical risks, Acter said.
The company’s strategy is to also expand its global footprint, it said.
Photo courtesy of Acter Group Co
Acter counts Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), United Microelectronics Co (聯電), Intel Corp, Nvidia Corp and Alphabet Inc’s Google among its major clients.
In addition to Asia, the company is also looking at Mexico and the US for further expansion projects together with its subsidiaries, Acter said.
The company is also seeking mergers and acquisitions, or strategic partnerships, to expand its global footprint, it said.
“As a number of our customers are relocating their supply chains to Southeast Asia, Japan and India, those three areas are our top priority for overseas expansion. I am planning a trip to India next week,” Acter spokesman Jeff Liang (梁鈞幃) said.
“We are following our customers to expand our operations,” Liang said. “In India, we have customers in the electronic components and semiconductor industries.”
Malaysia would be the nation with the most promising growth prospects, given that some of Acter’s major customers have unveiled new data center investment plans in the Southeast Asian nation, Liang said.
Acter for the past 10 years has been helping customers build fabs in Malaysia, he said.
The firm said it also expects to expand its operations in Thailand, without disclosing specific plans.
Acter’s subsidiary Rayzher Industrial Co (銳澤) last month set up a branch in Kumamoto, Japan, and plans to hire 10 to 20 employees.
TSMC, a key customer of Rayzher, is operating a fab in Kumamoto and plans to build a second fab.
Rayzher is planning a second overseas site in the second half of this year, likely in Germany, where TSMC plans to build a new 12-inch fab through a joint venture with its customers.
Acter yesterday raised its revenue growth forecast due to robust demand from semiconductor firms.
The company has more than 10 projects to build data centers at home or overseas, it said.
Acter has secured record-high orders amounting to NT$33 billion (US$1.02 billion), 60 percent of which come from semiconductor customers, Liang said.
“We were conservative about this year’s growth, but now we expect to get back on the growth track this year based on our better performance in the first five months,” Liang said.
Acter’s revenue rose about 5 percent year-on-year in the first five months to NT$10.36 billion.
Last year, its revenue fell 11.33 percent year-on-year.
HANDOVER POLICY: Approving the probe means that the new US administration of Donald Trump is likely to have the option to impose trade restrictions on China US President Joe Biden’s administration is set to initiate a trade investigation into Chinese semiconductors in the coming days as part of a push to reduce reliance on a technology that US officials believe poses national security risks. The probe could result in tariffs or other measures to restrict imports on older-model semiconductors and the products containing them, including medical devices, vehicles, smartphones and weaponry, people familiar with the matter said. The investigation examining so-called foundational chips could take months to conclude, meaning that any reaction to the findings would be left to the discretion of US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming team. Biden
INVESTMENT: Jun Seki, chief strategy officer for Hon Hai’s EV arm, and his team are currently in talks in France with Renault, Nissan’s 36 percent shareholder Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the iPhone maker known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally, is in talks with Nissan Motor Co’s biggest shareholder Renault SA about its willingness to sell its shares in the Japanese automaker, the Central News Agency (CNA) said, citing people it did not identify. Nissan and fellow Japanese automaker, Honda Motor Co, are exploring a merger that would create a rival to Toyota Motor Corp in Japan and better position the combined company to face competitive challenges around the world, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. However, one potential spanner in the works is
HON HAI LURKS: The ‘Nikkei’ reported that Foxconn’s interest in Nissan accelerated the Honda-merger effort out of fears it might be taken over by the Taiwanese firm Nissan Motor Co has become the latest buyout target in Japan as it explores a merger with Honda Motor Co and faces an overture from Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally. Shares in Nissan yesterday jumped 24 percent, the most on record, to hit the daily limit, after the two Japanese automakers acknowledged that talks are ongoing to better position themselves for competitive challenges during a time of upheaval in the global auto industry. Foxconn — a Taipei-based manufacturer of iPhones, which has been investing heavily in factories to build electric vehicles — has also
CHIP SUBSIDY: The US funding would help alleviate the financial pressure from building two fabs in the US and should lift gross margins in 2026, the company said GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s third-largest silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said it is to receive US$406 million in subsidies from the US Department of Commerce for two new US fabs under the CHIPS and Science Act, with the first batch of the funds likely coming next year. The grant represents 10 percent of the planned investments of US$4 billion in advanced semiconductor wafer manufacturing facilities in Texas and Missouri, GlobalWafers said. The commerce department is to disburse the funds based on the completion of project milestones over a multiyear timeframe, the company said. Along with the tax credit, which is equal to
RSS