Mosel-Vitelic considers Canadian fab
A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc.
Story posted 3:15 p.m. EST/12:15 p.m. PST, 3/22/99
By Sandy Chen and Mark LaPedus
TAIPEI (ChipWire/EBN)-- In the latest sign that Taiwan's new science
park remains in trouble, Mosel-Vitelic Inc. is evaluating the
possibility of building its first offshore wafer fab in Canada.
Hsinchu-based Mosel-Vitelic, one of Taiwan's largest memory makers, is
looking at building a costly, 300-mm wafer-processing plant in several
Canadian locations, including Montreal, Vancouver, among other sites.
A final decision has not been reached about building a fab in Canada,
however, a company spokesman said. "Nothing is certain yet," added the
company spokesman. "Everything is still under evaluation."
Analysts expressed skepticism about the possibility that Mosel-Vitelic
would decide to build a plant in Canada, which some noted had higher
labor costs than Taiwan.
Should Mosel-Vitelic put its 300-mm fab in Canada, however, the action
could be the latest in a series of setbacks for the island's troubled
science park in the southern city of Tainan.
Starting in the mid- to late-1990s, local chip makers began to run out
of room to build new fabs in Hsinchu, the center of the island's
semiconductor industry. In response, the Taiwan government began to
develop a new science park in Tainan in order to prevent the island's
chip makers from moving their plants (and investments) offshore.
But the Tainan park has experienced a serious problems in recent times.
The site itself is located in the middle of a swamp, presenting some
major water drainage problems and other nagging issues for chip makers.
Not surprisingly, local chip makers have delayed their plans in building
fabs in Tainan, including Mosel-Vitelic, which two years ago announced
plans to build a 300-mm plant in that location..
Other local IC vendors--including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
Ltd. (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC)--are instead putting
their capital expenditures in their new offshore fab sites.
TSMC continues to expand its capacity at WaferTech, a Camus, Wash.-based
joint foundry venture between the Taiwan company, Altera, Analog
Devices, and others U.S. chip makers. And this spring, TSMC and Philips
will break ground on a new foundry venture in Singapore.
Not to be outdone, TSMC's foundry rival, UMC, last year bought an 8-inch
fab in Japan from Nippon Steel Semiconductor Corp.
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