Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/1999/11/30/tsmcacer_to_boost_output_by/

TSMC-Acer to boost output by 40pc

$200m investment to push production in 2000

By Linda Harrison

Posted in On-Prem, 30th November 1999 17:19 GMT

TSMC-Acer Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp plans to increase production by 40 per cent by the fourth quarter of next year. The Taiwanese company said it aimed to up manufacture of wafers from the current 30,000 to 43,000 per month at its "TA-1" factory. This was based on using 200mm wafers. By product, this can be divided into 10,000 DRAMs, 5,000 flash memories and 28,000 logic LSIs per month, according to the AsiaBizTech newswire. This will be fuelled by a 21 billion yen investment ($0.2 billion) in operations. The company also outlined its longer-term expansion plans for its other plant, "TA-2". It aims for wafer manufacture at this site to reach 25,000 per month by the fourth quarter of 2001. Today Philips Semiconductors also unveiled its expanded facility in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, which will push production capacity at the MOS4 fab from 200,000 to 300,000 8 inch wafers per year. According to Philips: "We anticipated the timing of the upswing in the semiconductor industry and invested to increase our production capacity at the right time." Hence, the 250 million (£158 million) expansion. These moves are systematic of a market moving from a state of overcapacity to undercapacity, according to Joe D'Elia, senior microprocessor analyst at Dataquest Europe. "Everyone is looking to add capacity, and it is quicker to increase production capacity in an existing facility than to build a new one," said D'Elia. ® Related stories: Acer, TSMC to expand in Taiwan despite quake Acer Semi to merge with TSMC? Chip market showed steep decline in 1998