SUMCO Corporation announced plans to transfer wafer production from the Miyazaki Plant of consolidated subsidiary SUMCO TECHXIV Corporation to other manufacturing facilities, with the aim of improving profitability by reorganizing the production of silicon wafers of 200 mm and smaller.
The current silicon wafer market environment is in a prolonged sluggish demand phase, due to such factors as the drop-off from extraordinary demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, and structural changes in the semiconductor supply chain occasioned by US-China friction.
Drawdown of 300 mm wafer inventories by customers is taking time, as semiconductor production adjustments continue; but overall demand is expected to recover gradually thanks to strong needs for leadingedge products for AI semiconductors and high-performance memory. Demand remains sluggish, however, for small-diameter wafers mainly for consumer, industrial, and automotive uses. Wafers of 150 mm and smaller, in particular, are expected to see falling demand, with customers shifting to 200 mm wafers or lowering their production capacity as manufacturing equipment reaches its end of life.
In this market environment, the SUMCO Group has decided to reorganize the Miyazaki Plant to improve efficiency through consolidation of the production capacity of small wafers. The Miyazaki Plant will become a factory solely for monocrystalline production, while wafer production will be transferred to other domestic plants in the SUMCO Group and to Indonesia, ending wafer production in Miyazaki by the end of 2026.
SUMCO intends to reassign employees affected by the reorganization to 300 mm wafer operations after the end of wafer production in Miyazaki. With this reorganization, expenses for business structural reforms have been posted for fiscal 2024 as extraordinary losses totaling 5.8 billion yen, consisting of an impairment loss on non-current assets of 4.6 billion yen and an inventory write-down, etc., of 1.2 billion yen.
The SUMCO Group is committed to ongoing efficiency-raising initiatives, including reorganization of production facilities. Moreover, with the accelerating pace of innovation in semiconductor technology, in addition to strategically making use of advanced manufacturing equipment currently under preparation for operation, we will focus management resources on modernizing equipment in existing 300 mm plants and boost our capacity for supplying leading-edge products for AI with their remarkable growth, as we strive to further raise our corporate value.
Original – SUMCO