With GlobalFoundries, Intel, Samsung, Texas Instruments and TSMC announcing expansion plans in the United States, the United States has a strong demand for high-quality upstream materials. – The demand for wafers will also grow significantly.
On December 1, 2022 (US time), the world's third largest wafer manufacturer, Global Wafers Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Global Wafers"), a 12-inch fab in the United States, GlobalWafers America, opened in Sherman, Texas. The groundbreaking ceremony was held, which will establish Global Wafer's strategic position in the US semiconductor supply chain.
With the expansion of production in the United States this time, Global Wafer will make up for the gap in the domestic wafer supply chain in the United States. Although the semiconductor manufacturing sector in the United States continues to grow, the domestic wafer supply has fallen below 1%, which clearly shows that the shortage of domestic wafer supply in the United States is serious.
Universal Wafer said that the recent epidemic and geopolitical risks have sounded the alarm for the lack of a wafer supply chain in the United States. For this reason, customers have signed long-term contracts with Universal Wafer to show their support. The cooperation projects cover vehicles, mobile phones, and computers. and industrial applications.
According to the plan, the GlobalWafers factory can complete new factory construction, equipment installation, customer sample delivery and mass production within two years. The new plant covers an area of 58 hectares, providing sufficient space for future phased expansion.
On June 27 this year, Global Wafer announced that it will build a new 12-inch silicon wafer fab in Sherman, Texas, USA, which is also the location of the American subsidiary GlobiTech. This new plant is part of the 100 billion Taiwan dollar expansion plan announced by Universal Wafer on February 6 this year.
With GlobalFoundries, Intel, Samsung, Texas Instruments and TSMC announcing expansion plans in the United States, the United States has a strong demand for high-quality upstream materials. – The demand for wafers will also grow significantly.
The 12-inch wafer is an indispensable key material for all advanced semiconductor manufacturing. Since the production bases of advanced 12-inch wafers are almost all located in Asia, the US semiconductor industry is highly dependent on imported wafers. The expansion plan of Global Wafer is to fill the key gap in the US semiconductor supply chain.
It is understood that the capacity of this 12-inch fab is expected to be released in 2025. The new plant will be built in stages according to the customer's long-term demand, and the equipment will be stationed in succession. After all the projects are completed, the complete plant area will reach 3.2 million square feet, and the maximum production capacity will reach 1.2 million 12-inch wafers per month. Compared with other factories of the same nature, this 12-inch fab is not only the largest in the United States, but also one of the largest large factories in the world. In addition, due to the vast land, after the construction of the new factory is completed, there is still sufficient space for future use.
Italian subsidiary MEMC SPA announces 12-inch production expansion plan
On February 18 this year, the board of directors of MEMC SPA, the Italian subsidiary of Universal Wafer Group, approved the addition of 12-inch wafer production lines in Novara, Italy, in addition to the existing 8-inch wafer production line, in accordance with the resolution of the board of directors of the group's parent company Global Wafer. inch production line.
This investment formally announces the expansion of Universal Wafer's business in Europe. The project has been deeply recognized by the Italian government (MISE) and key European microelectronic equipment manufacturers. Universal Wafer's Merano and Novara factories are both located in Italy. They were established from 1974 to 1976 and have a long history.
The focus of this expansion approved by the board of directors is the production and development of 12-inch polished wafers and epiwafers, which can be applied to the most advanced technological innovations. In addition, since the Merano factory has started 12-inch wafer growth and capacity expansion, with the expansion of production in the Piedmont region of Italy, Universal Wafer will have a complete and highly integrated manufacturing facility in Italy. 12-inch production line.
It is understood that the 12-inch production line will start production in mid-2023, and start mass production after completing customer verification and installing the development and production equipment required for new products.
In view of the fact that a new 12-inch new advanced production line needs to invest a lot of money, the prerequisites for the implementation of this project are: 1. Fund injection from the joint partners of the development project; 2. Obtaining government subsidies related to European/Italian microelectronics investment (ie IPCEI- ME/CT-IPCEI on Microelectronics And Communication Technologies).
M&A Siltronic Setback Announces Expansion Plans
On February 1 this year, Universal Wafer announced that the public acquisition of Siltronic Electronic Materials (Siltronic) was before the transaction deadline (January 31, 2022), and it will implement the expansion plan due to failure to obtain approval from all competent authorities . The funds originally used for the acquisition will be transferred to capital expenditure and operating turnover. Universal Wafer expects total capital expenditure from 2022 to 2024 to reach NT$100 billion (approximately US$3.6 billion), including major new plant expansion (greenfield).
Xu Xiulan, Chairman and CEO of Universal Wafers, said: "Even if the public acquisition of Siltronic fails, we have planned a dual-track strategy in advance. I am very much looking forward to the various options we can consider now to improve technology development and increase production capacity."
Universal Wafer will consider a number of existing plant areas and new plant expansion plans, including 12-inch wafer and epitaxy, 8-inch and 12-inch SOI, 8-inch FZ, SiC wafer (including SiC Epi), GaN on Si And other large-size next-generation products. The production expansion plan covers investment in Asia, Europe and the United States, with a total investment of up to 100 billion Taiwan dollars, including the expansion of existing factories and the construction of new factories. The output time of new production lines will increase quarter by quarter from the second half of 2023.
Regarding the failure of Global Crystal to complete the Siltronic acquisition, some analysts believe that Global Crystal maintains a more robust capital structure. Global protectionism for important industries is gradually on the rise, and Global Crystal is unlikely to make large-scale acquisitions in the next one to two years.
Global wafer revenue hits record high
On November 4, China-US Silicon announced its revenue data for October. The data shows that the combined revenue of Sino-US silicon wafers reached 7.42 billion yuan, a monthly increase of 3% and an annual increase of 25.8%. From January to October, the cumulative combined revenue of Sino-US silicon wafers reached 68.08 billion yuan, an increase of 20.2% over the same period last year. Global Wafer, a semiconductor subsidiary of Sino-US Silicon, had a consolidated revenue of 6.29 billion yuan in October, a monthly growth of 3.8% and an annual growth of 26.8%. From January to October, the cumulative consolidated revenue of Global Wafer reached 58.19 billion yuan, an increase of 15.6% over the same period last year. Sino-US Silicon and Global Wafer performed well. Sino-US Silicon’s combined revenue in October reached the second highest in history, and Global Wafer’s October combined revenue hit a record high.