March 22, 2007 – Inotera Memories Inc., the memory chipmaking JV of Nanya Technology Corp. and German chipmaker Qimonda AG, plans to spend about $72 million to buy 16.7 hectares of land in a suburban area of Taoyuan County, northern Taiwan, to be the future home of its third and fourth 300mm factories which will require an estimated investment of more than $6.0 billion, reports the Taiwan Economic News.

Land development and factory construction plans are expected to be completed by 3Q07 at the earliest. Inotera chose the Taoyuan site over others in the Central Taiwan Science Park and Chiayi County due to its proximity to corporate HQ in Linkou (Taipei County) and the Hsinchu Science Park, the paper noted, citing comments by a Inotera spokesperson.

Inotera currently runs two 300mm wafer fabs at a high-tech park in the same area. Pilot production at the first site in Taipei County is planned for May with volume production ramped in 4Q07. Construction at the second site is expected to start by year’s end (an opening ceremony is to be held this week), to eventually house two production lines and 50nm process technologies codeveloped by Inotera and Qimonda. The two sites have a projected combined output of 120,000 wafers/month by year’s end, up 70% from last year, the paper noted.