TSMC may apply for China plant approval in July

May 29, 2002 – Hsinchu, Taiwan – Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) said it might apply in July or August for Taiwan government approval to build its first wafer fab in China.

However, a TSMC official downplayed a report in the Chinese-language Economic Daily News that said TSMC has chosen the Shanghai Songjiang Industrial Zone as the site of the plant, saying the location of the plant has yet to be decided.

Local media also reported that construction of the plant – with a monthly capacity of 40,000 wafers and using 0.25-micron process technology – would begin during 2H03.

The plan comes after Taiwan’s government partially ended a ban on semiconductor investments in China, saying it would allow local chipmakers to build a total of three wafer plants on the mainland by 2005, Dow Jones reported.

The easing of restrictions paves the way for the island’s chipmakers to tap the mainland’s burgeoning technology industry, which is rapidly emerging as the next major center of global electronics manufacturing.

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