Record fab construction

Published: 22-Jul-2004


In the second quarter of 2004, the start of construction on new fabs set an industry record in both numbers and dollar value, according to data reported by Santa Cruz-based market research company Strategic Marketing Associates (SMA). Work began on 15 new semiconductor fab projects during the quarter ended June 30, with planned capacity of almost 500,000 200mm wafers a month. This is more than in any quarter in history and equal to almost the entire capacity of facilities started in 2003. "Work began on 15bn euros worth of new facilities worldwide in the second quarter," said SMA president George Burns. "This pushed the value of new fab starts this year above 20.4bn euros, which exceeds the total value of new facilities started throughout 2003." Since the surge began in the fourth quarter of last year, construction has begun on more than 28.5bn euros of new fabs. "While this is not as high as the 47.2bn euros the industry started construction on in the last boom of 1999-2001, the rate of this boom is much higher," he said. Of the 14.6bn euros worth of fabs starting construction in the second quarter, 46% or 6.8bn euros were in Japan. Five Japanese companies – Elpida, Fujitsu, Matsushita, NEC and Toshiba – began work on 300mm fabs. Infineon Technologies began work on two projects valued at 0.94bn euros, one in Germany and the other in the US.

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