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Photo source: Reuters
Texas factory will start production as early as 2025 and will become the largest 12-inch silicon wafer material production base in the United States. The plant will enable the company to meet growing local demand from customers who expand their production in the U.S., including TSMC, Intel and Samsung. Construction is scheduled to begin later this year.
Although the initial investment of the new factory is about US$2 billion, Global Crystal said it does not rule out further expansion. According to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, the total investment generated by the project could reach as much as $5 billion in the next few years.
Currently, Global Crystal only lags behind Japan's Shintsuki Chemical and Sumco in terms of global silicon wafer market share. Xu Xiulan, chairman and CEO of Global Crystal, said: "GWA will no longer import silicon wafers from Asia, but will produce and supply silicon wafers locally to reduce carbon emissions."
Global Crystal said in a press statement: "This investment will represent the start of the first new silicon wafer factory in the United States in more than 20 years and fill a key gap in the semiconductor supply chain."
US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raymondo welcomed the decision to build the Texas factory.
"Today's Global Crystal's statement is crucial to rebuilding the domestic semiconductor supply chain, strengthening our economic and national security, and creating jobs in the U.S. manufacturing industry," she said in a statement. "But we are at a time of success or failure to expand domestic semiconductor production. Semiconductor companies need to make investment decisions by the fall to meet the huge growth demand for chips."
Xu Xiulan said in an interview: "We take into account government incentives, customer commitment to long-term agreements, and production diversification to determine where our new factory is located."
Delivery time for these chip manufacturing tools continues to be extended due to equipment supply constraints, and her company has ordered all the machinery and equipment needed for the factory to start as planned.
Although end-user demand, including consumer electronics, has slowed, she said wafer prices have risen in all long-term agreements between the company and its customers. Sumco has told customers that prices will be raised by 30% this year in renewal due to rising raw material prices.
Global Crystal said that Texas investment is expected to support up to 1,500 jobs. After multiple stages of equipment installation, the production capacity will eventually reach 1.2 million wafers per month, meeting market demand. The company expanded its business to the United States when it acquired SunEdison Semiconductor in 2016. (Proofreading/Stan)
