Beijing plans power chip factory construction

The strength of the Chinese capital in semiconductors will be bulked further, as Beijing poses to attract foreign investors to build an eight-inch power semiconductor factory.

Liang Sheng, division chief with the Bureau of Industrial Development of the Beijing municipal government and a mastermind in the development of the city's semiconductor industry, said yesterday a company named Superpower Semiconductor (SPS) will invest as much as US$1 billion to build a power chip factory in Beijing.

The plant will be constructed on the site of the former Huaxia Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (HSMC).

HSMC was initiated by the Chinese steel giant Shougang Group in 2000 and was expected to attract some international investors, but the US$1.3 billion plan was formally scrapped last week due to a lack of investors and the semiconductor industry depression in 2000.

Liang said SPS is composed of an international team, but did not specify its investors.

Information from Shijingshan district government says the SPS Beijing company has a registered capital of US$25 million and acquired a piece of land of almost 70,000 square metres.

It was reported that SPS is a US-registered company.

The US semiconductor firm Freescale, which was spun off from Motorola's semiconductor product sector which also produces power semiconductors, said it had no knowledge of the news and the company did not have a plan to do so. Liang said the Beijing SPS company has raised the first phase investment of US$200 million for the project and expects to finish the construction in about a year's time.

When the first phase is completed, its production capacity is expected to reach 10,000 chips per month.

The investment of the second phase is estimated to be US$400 million and the monthly capacity will reach 20,000 to 30,000 chips.

When the final phase is finished, the capacity is forecast to amount to 60,000 per month.

The project will be mainly engaged in power semiconductors, especially used for automotive electronics.

Liang said SPS's power semiconductors are world-class technology and only face competition from a few Japanese companies in the field.

Liang believes the fast-growing automobile market in China has huge demand for automotive electronics and it means the demand for power semiconductors will also be huge.

Beijing has become one of the most important semiconductor bases in China with the country's most advanced 12-inch wafer foundry and the first fifth-generation liquefied crystal display line.

Source: China Daily