Qimonda announces expansion of back-end facility in China
Qimonda AG has announced the planned expansion of its existing facility for the assembly and testing of memory ICs (back-end) in the Suzhou Industrial Park, Suzhou, China, located 80 kilometers west of Shanghai. In course of the expansion, Qimonda will construct a second building doubling the factory's capacity.
Investment in construction of new facility, including infrastructure, production equipment and IT, amounts to around Euro 250 million over the next three years. The expansion adds to the ongoing investment in the existing manufacturing facilities in Suzhou Industrial Park which were established starting in 2003.
Construction of the new facility is scheduled to begin in March 2007, with the site ready for the equipment installation by late 2007. A new clean room of 10,000sqm will be added to the existing clean room of 10,000sqm. The expansion will also result in a significant increase of headcount. The facility currently has about 1,700 staff. At full capacity, the headcount is expected to move beyond 3,000 employees.
"Growth in our front-end capacities, with more than two-thirds of our DRAM bits shipped now produced on 300mm manufacturing lines, clearly requires an increase in our back-end capacities. With the expansion in Suzhou we are now excellently set up to further leverage our advantage in 300mm manufacturing," said Kin Wah Loh, President and CEO of Qimonda.
Ma Ming Long, Chairman of Suzhou Industrial Park Administrative Committee (SIPAC), also addressed his support to this expansion: "It is the enterprise and industry that SIPAC fully supports and targets. We believe that with the completion of the second building, Qimonda will meet customers' needs effectively as well as bring the company a good return of investment in the future. In addition, this expansion strengthens Qimonda's global business development in the memory market."
