Wafer-round industrial arms race launches again

Wafer generation plant TSMC and UMC Synchronous actively expand the plant, 12-inch wafer capacity for the two companies to expand the focus of production, the wafer industrial arms race again.

Although the semiconductor industry will grow at a slower pace this year, the world's semiconductor industry will only grow 2% to 3% more than last year, but TSMC and UMC have not been as relaxed.

Following the inauguration of TSMC on April 9 in the 5th phase of the Nanco Jing 14 plant, UMC will also follow up the groundbreaking ceremony of the 5th phase and the 6th workshop of the South Branch 12A plant on May 24.

To meet customers ' strong demand for a 28 nm process and accelerate the 20-nm process, TSMC decided to increase its capital expenditure this year from the originally estimated $6 billion trillion to 8 billion to 8.5 billion dollars, and I am up to 33% to 41%.

UMC capital spending will also reach $2 billion trillion this year.

TSMC estimates that this year's total output will reach 14.834 million pieces of about 8 inches when the size of the wafer, will be 12% higher than last year, of which, 12-inch wafer capacity will increase by 17% last year, is expected to the end of the year 12-inch wafer production capacity will reach 58%, leaped to the main.

TSMC predicts that the 15 plant will be produced in April, with 50,000 28 NM production capacity at the end of the year, which will be the fastest-growing large wafer factory in history and will meet customers ' demand for 28 NM production capacity in the 1th quarter of next year.

UMC Although the first half of the production capacity will only be slightly increased, but with the new capacity, the total output will be increased by 4% this year, of which 12-inch wafer capacity will increase by 8% from last year.

To further develop the plan, the UMC has already discussed with the South Branch authority the site of the 7th and 8th phase of the plant for the 12A factory, which will be completed after the construction of the phase 5th and 6th plants, and then depending on the market conditions.

12-inch wafer capacity with TSMC and UMC expansion focus, however, in the active expansion of advanced production capacity at the same time, two companies are also consistent efforts to develop special process technology. TSMC, for example, plans to spend $200 million this year in developing special process technologies such as embedded flash memory.

TSMC and UMC are also planning to raise debt in response to the demand for capital spending in recent years: UMC plans to issue NT $10 billion for unsecured ordinary corporate debt, 7.5 billion for 5-year corporate debt and 2.5 billion for 7-year corporate debt.

TSMC also disclosed that it would prioritize the issuance of corporate bonds.

Beyond TSMC and UMC, China's mainland wafer foundry Core International also actively expand production, announced a joint venture to establish a new company, in Beijing 12-inch wafer factory to carry out the 2nd Plant expansion plan, the new factory monthly capacity of about 70,000 pieces of scale, the expected wafer industry competition will continue to be fierce.