All...a news item from about 06 May 97
Singapore To Play Greater Role Among Asian Computer Chip Makers
SINGAPORE -(Dow Jones)- Planned heavy investment in Singapore's semiconductor industry will see the sector consume $2 billion to $3 billion a year in chip-making equipment by the year 2000, up from about $1 billion at the end of 1996, said the U.S.-based Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International Association.
SEMI's Asia director Alan Jung said consumption of that order would see Singapore producing about 10% of computer-chip output from the region (excluding Japan) by the end of the decade. That's up from levels of "substantially lower than 10%" today, Jung said.
Jung said that even in the longer term, Singapore will require an average of about $2 billion a year in new semiconductor-production equipment over the next 10 years.
Semiconductors are one of Singapore's key electronics exports, intensively promoted by the Singapore government to foreign investors, in a fashion similar to efforts of the governments of Taiwan and South Korea. The three countries are the biggest chip makers in Asia after Japan.
Two multinational groups and one state-owned company have committed to building 10 wafer fabrication plants in Singapore by 1999, of which five have been finished.
Jung said that once all 10 are up and running, Singapore's monthly output will rise to about 67,000 wafers by year 2000, up from around 31,000 chips at the end of 1996.
SEMI, based in Mountain View, Calif., is a trade association of semiconductor equipment and chip suppliers. Tuesday, Semi opened its 1997 Semicon Test, Assembly & Packaging conference and exhibition in Singapore. The exhibition is the fifth it has held in the series.
Copyright (c) 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. |
