New 300mm manufacturing facility in Singapore will expand front-end Capacity
Qimonda has announced plans to strengthen its footprint in the Asian market by building its first fully-owned 300mm manufacturing facility on the continent. Depending on the growth and development of the world semiconductor market, Qimonda plans to invest approximately Euro 2 billion in the site over the next five years. The new fab is planned to be built in Singapore and with 20,000sqm clean room space is expected to add 60,000 wafer starts per month to Qimonda's overall front-end capacity when fully ramped.
"Our investment in Singapore is a major step to expand our regional presence in the Asian market. We are addressing several strategic objectives at once," said Kin Wah Loh, President and CEO of Qimonda. "We are responding to the fast growing DRAM market and are moving closer to our customers in Asia. In addition, we can benefit from local competitive cost structures and manufacturing know-how and finally further reduce our exposure to exchange rate fluctuations compared to the US-Dollar. With this investment we are using our financial strength and flexibility to enable us to capture opportunities in this rapidly developing market whenever they arise."
The planned investment of approximately Euro 2 billion in the new fab in Singapore is planned to span the next five years. Qimonda expects to finance the initial capital expenditures for the building out of its own cash flow and will utilize project-based financing thereafter. Commencement of construction is scheduled for the end of calendar year 2007, with production expected to start in 2009. When running at full capacity, the new fab will have more than 1,500 employees.
"With the new fab we put ourselves in the position to fully benefit from our technological expertise, to drive our product roll-out more rapidly and to leverage economies of scale in Asia", said Kin Wah Loh. "In Singapore, we have found excellent conditions. The overall package of low taxation, incentives and factors such as highly skilled labour and strong infrastructure makes Singapore our place of choice to implement our fully-owned volume production in the Asian market."
