Channel Micron Holdings (CMH) has acquired four acres of land in Malaysia worth $6.5m. The company will used the land in Kapar, Klang to build its new facility that is planned to increase production by approximately 34%.
The group is principally engaged in the provision of cleanroom wall and ceiling systems and cleanroom equipment in China and Malaysia.
On the multi-year search for this site, CMH looked at both existing facilities and empty plots to accommodate its needs. Focused on meeting increased and international demand, upping production is especially important due to the semiconductor shortage around the world and the global pandemic.
In the 2020 annual report, Ng Yew Sum, Chairman and Executive Director of CMH said: "Looking forward, in the near term, cleanroom facility owners will continue to remain cautious about their investment plans and may choose to delay their projects in view of the uncertain market condition due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, some of the group's contracts on hand should have commenced in 2020 based on the original schedule but were eventually awarded to the Group in early 2021 instead as the facility owners decided to delay or slowdown the projects. The Group expects the global economic uncertainty caused by the outbreak of COVID-19 will continue throughout 2021. Nonetheless, the Group expects that the market uncertainty caused by COVID-19 will gradually diminish in the second half of 2021 with the improvement in the COVID-19 pandemic."
CMH added that its main subsidiaries in Malaysia, Channel Systems Asia and Micron (M), will also be relocating operations from the current one-acre factory in Shah Alam Klang once it is completed.
Some of the more sizeable contracts that CMH undertook in 2020 were detailed in the company's annual report:
- a contract to supply cleanroom wall and ceiling systems products for the construction of a mega data centre facility in Singapore, from which revenue generated for FY2020 amounted to RMB21.7 million, representing 11.4% of total cleanroom wall and ceiling systems revenue of the Group for FY2020
- a contract to supply cleanroom wall and ceiling system products with installation services for the construction of a semiconductor product manufacturing facility in Shaoxing, China
- a contract to supply cleanroom wall and ceiling system products for the construction of a semiconductor product manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia
- a contract to supply cleanroom wall and ceiling system products with installation services for the construction of a semiconductor raw material manufacturing facility in Hohhot, China
- a contract to supply cleanroom wall and ceiling system products with installation services for the construction of a semiconductor product manufacturing facility in Chongqing, China
- a contract to supply cleanroom wall and ceiling system products with installation services for the construction of a testing and assembly facility in Chengdu, China
- a contract to supply cleanroom wall and ceiling system products with installation services for the construction of a semiconductor product manufacturing facility in Wuhan, China.
Global plans
Alongside Malaysia, the company and its Chinese subsidiary, Channel Systems (Shanghai), are also looking for a new facility in Shanghai.
"China has always been an important market for us, being home to many production facilities across various industries that export globally," explained Yew Sum, in a statement. "We want to strengthen our footprint there to contribute towards the government's goal of being a self-reliant country in chipmaking, through the supply of our cleanroom solutions."
