Morning all,
a very interesting Bloomberg Article on Chinese companies continuing their massive spending plans on gaining Chip Independence from the USA - a theme I have flagged over 1 year ago and that I think is in full swing with Aixtron and PVA Tepla being major beneficiaries as they deliver crucial technology.
@CWL: Do you know SMIC? Anything to add wrt to Aixtron? Do they need Aixtron tools or is ASML etc more in focus?
Regards!
Fel
By Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) -- Semiconductor Manufacturing International
Corp. aims to spend $8.87 billion building a new plant on the
outskirts of Shanghai, a major expansion in capacity at a time
China?s trying to build a world-class chip industry.
SMIC has signed an agreement to establish a 100,000 per-
month wafer plant in the Lin-Gang Special Area, a free trade
zone run by the city. The facility will focus on more mature
technology of 28 nanometers or older, the company said in a
filing. It plans to set up a joint venture with registered
capital of $5.5 billion with Shanghai?s government to oversee
the project, of which the company will own at least 51%. SMIC?s
shares jumped as much as 2.7% in Hong Kong and 4.8% in Shanghai.
The envisioned plant comes on top of a $2.35 billion
factory SMIC?s planning for south China?s Shenzhen that will be
able to make as many as 40,000 12-inch wafers per month.
Together, the projects represent an effort to shore up its lead
in domestic chipmaking while furthering the country?s broader
chip ambitions. The Shanghai facility?s mature-node chips could
be targeted at the auto-making industry, which is struggling
with an endemic shortage of the semiconductors they need to
power electric vehicles and in-car systems.
Shanghai-based SMIC is China?s best hope for gaining clout
in advanced chips used in devices from smartphones to base
stations. Its capacity and technical know-how are crucial to
helping Beijing overcome a U.S.-led effort to curb its tech
ambitions. But the company has been unable to get key machinery
to keep advancing its technology, after the U.S. placed it under
sanctions last year on national security grounds.
Read more: Xi Taps Top Deputy to Lead China?s Chip Battle
Against U.S.
Beijing is moving swiftly to cut a dependence on the West
for crucial components like chips, an issue that became more
urgent after a global shortage of semiconductors worsened during
the pandemic.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has tapped close confidante
Liu He, the economic czar whose sprawling portfolio spans trade
to finance and technology, to spearhead the development of so-
called third-generation or compound semiconductor chip
development. He?s now leading the formulation of a series of
financial and policy support for the technology, Bloomberg News
has reported.
SMIC?s newest plant will be built in a free-trade zone in
the southeastern suburbs of Shanghai, an enlargement of the
tariff-free areas Xi originally approved to attract foreign
investment and trade. The company is expanding because its
existing plants are running at or close to full capacity and its
executives are counting on being able to procure equipment to
make chips based on more mature technologies, despite U.S.
sanctions.