Dec. 1, 2008 – Chinese foundries Hua Hong NEC (HHNEC) and Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. are finalizing merger plans in the next few weeks, according to a report by Digitimes citing a local chip industry group.
The two firms started merger talks a couple of months ago, and expect to finalize terms by the Lunar New Year, the site claims, citing a report by the Shanghai Integrated Circuit Industry Association. The government is said to support such a deal. HHNEC, which has been involved in several government projects, currently owns two 200mm fabs with 60,000 wafers/month capacity; Grace currently has 35,000 wafers/month capacity at its Shanghai operation.