SilTerra, Malaysia's largest semiconductor wafer foundry, has announced that it will invest 645 million ringgit ($150 million) to expand its annual production capacity from 8.3 million mask layers to 10 million layers, or 20 per cent.
According to the company announcement, the investment comes from shareholder capital injection and internal accumulation, and the new capacity is expected to be put into production in early 2023.
The head of the company said that since the joint acquisition of Shengshi Investment and DNeX, the production and operation efficiency of the Siltera eight-inch fab has been significantly improved and the operating efficiency has been improved.
In view of the fact that the demand in areas such as electric vehicles, the Internet of things, and data centers is particularly suitable for 200mm characteristic process OEM of SilTerra, and the company has signed long-term supply agreements with downstream customers such as mainland enterprise Ji Chuang North and Taiwan enterprise Yili Technology, the sales are guaranteed, so the company decided to expand production capacity.
Since the second half of last year, the global wafer foundry capacity has been in short supply, especially the 8-inch wafer production capacity, which continues to impact many industries. According to the statistics of IC Insights, as an 8-inch wafer foundry, SilTerra ranks 16th in the field of pure wafer foundry in the world. In February last year, Dagang NeXchange Bhd (DNeX) joined hands with partner Beijing Shengshi Investment (Beijing CGP Investment Co Ltd) to acquire SilTerra. It is reported that 60% of the acquisition is funded by DNeX, and Beijing Shengshi accounts for 40% of the investment in CGP. It was reported earlier that it was trading at 82.95 million US dollars (RM300m 36 million).
