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Technology Stocks : Applied Materials No-Politics Thread (AMAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (7278)	9/23/2003 12:56:34 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25522

STMicro sees own China fab within three years by Brian Fuller, EETimes Silicon Strategies 09/23/2003, 12:31 PM ET CATANIA, Italy -- STMicroelectronics plans to open a 12-inch-capable wafer fab in Mainland China within three years, once its revenues from that region reach $2 billion, a top executive said Tuesday (September 23, 2003). Laurent Bosson, vice president of front-end manufacturing, said that once that revenue threshold is passed, the European firm would build a structure capable of processing 300-mm diameter wafers, although depending on circumstances initial equipment build-out could be focused on 8-inch 200-mm manufacturing. "We must be in China in the next three years," Bosson told a gathering of international journalists touring ST's 12-inch M6 fab here, which is under construction. "If you're above $2 billion (in revenues) in China, the authorities say 'Hey, where is your fab?'" ST has reported China revenues of just below $1 billion in its most recent reporting period. ST has about 600 designer engineers dotted at three sites in China, and that figure could grow to 900 in the next few years, Bosson said. The fab in China will be a copy of the M6 facility here, a huge (220,000 square meters) plant said to be the largest project under construction in all of Europe. Bosson is quick to assert that the often-used "copy-exact" process strategy is not one he adheres to, instead preferring "copy intelligently" to adopt lessons learned at earlier fabs. The new Catania fab, when it begins producing wafers in the fourth quarter of 2004, will adopt the 90-nm process that ST is developing in its Crolles-2 300-mm pilot line in France. Catania has an older 6-inch facility here, called M5, which handles half-micron design rules. Bosson, in an interview, said ST would go it alone on the China project, preferring to maintain total ownership for both process-control and financial reasons.