It adds up......
China foundry CSMC obtains $67 million in funds
By Mark LaPedus
Semiconductor Business News
08/05/2003, 12:45 PM ET
WUXI, China -- Silicon foundry provider CSMC Technologies Corp. of China today (Aug 5) announced it has received $67 million in its first round of funding.
The funding was led by 3i, Crown Crystal Investments Ltd., and China Resources Logic, CSMC's largest shareholder. IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group and a private equity fund managed by Templeton Asset Management Ltd., also participated in the funding.
Proceeds will be used to expand CSMC's foundry services. While most major silicon foundry providers are currently building new 200- and 300-mm fabs, CSMC is bucking the trend, by expanding its existing 6-inch, 0.5-micron plant.
The Wuxi-based company is not looking to build an 8-inch fab--at least for now. Instead, it plans to build another 6-inch fab, which will be capable of making "trailing-edge" 0.35-micron chips ( see Nov. 15 story ).
CSMC has come a long way in a short time. The company was originally known as China Huajing Electronics Group Corp., which was a state-run IC enterprise formed in the 1980s. In 1998, CSMC and China Huajing formed a joint foundry venture, dubbed CSMC-HJ Semiconductor Co. Ltd. At that time, the company shifted its focus from standard chip products, to the foundry business.
The timing is ripe for an investment in CSMC, said Peter Chen, CSMC's chairman and CEO. "This investment is a significant endorsement of CSMC's business model and international strategy, and comes at a time when we are seeing signs that the industry is set for significant recovery," he said in a statement.
At the same time, China's IC market is exploding. China's semiconductor market has grown about 30 percent in recent times, from $2.4 billion in 1995 to $15 billion in 2002, making it the world's third largest semiconductor market, behind the U.S. and Japan.
Despite this strong growth, it is estimated that current domestic supply can only meet less than 20 percent the demand in China. According to Gartner Inc., the China IC market is expected to continue growing at a rate of about 20 percent per year, reaching to $31 billion in 2006. |
