March 17, 2005- Sumitomo Mitsubishi Silicon Corp. announced that it plans to hike its monthly production capacity of 300mm silicon wafers from 300,000 units to 600,000 by summer 2008, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

The major silicon wafer manufacturer has been working since last year to raise its 300mm wafer production capacity to 400,000 units a month by summer 2006 at a cost of about 60 billion yen. By spending an additional 80 billion yen or so, the firm now aims to boost the capacity to 600,000 units. Most of the expansions are slated for the company’s Kyushu plant in Imari, Saga Prefecture.

Sumitomo Mitsubishi Silicon hopes that doubling its production capacity will enable it to maintain its market share.

Sumitomo Mitsubishi Silicon was created through the merged silicon wafer operations of Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd. and Mitsubishi Materials Corp. Its group pretax profit came to roughly 20 billion yen for the year ended Jan. 31 on group sales of about 200 billion yen.