According to Taiwan’s Business Times, UMC responded to the news that it is “considering investing JPY 500 billion (currently about RMB 25.6 billion) to build a new wafer fab in an existing facility in Mie County, Japan” by saying that there is no such thing.
In April 2022, UMC announced a partnership with DENSO to build the first 12-inch wafer line at the USJC facility in Japan.
Taiwan media pointed out that the majority of IGBTs are currently produced on 8-inch wafers, although in the second half of 2022 to 8-inch wafer capacity oversupply, but in the medium and long term because of the difficulty of capacity expansion, market conditions improve and demand recovery is still facing the problem of lack of capacity.
The legal person said that the past 8-inch or 6-inch wafer production of power semiconductors, in recent years began to shift to 12-inch wafer production but more difficult, UMC and DENSO cooperation, if successful, will provide effective capacity to meet the long-term demand for automotive chips.
UMC’s January 2023 revenue slipped to NT$19.59 billion (currently about RMB 4.427 billion), down 6.47% sequentially and 4.31% year-over-year, hitting a 15-month low.
