As the United States continues to hammer down trade restrictions on China, YMTC has decided to uplift the chipmaking capacity by building new fabs.
China & US Trade Wars Continue, In the Midst, YMTC Decides To Double Its Production Capacity With Two Brand New Chipmaking Factories
The semiconductor industry is currently facing a trade war between two giants. On one hand, there's the United States, and on the other, there's China. From export restrictions to the banning of necessary tools that are required for making chips, the United States is trying to ensure that China doesn't get bleeding-edge materials and tools to gain an edge over them in the industry. Just recently, US lawmakers moved to ban ASML DUV technology exports to China.
But the restrictions don't end there, but are applied at multiple fronts. To tackle this situation, Chinese chipmaker YMTC (Yangtze Memory Technology) has decided to take matters into its own hands to supplement the needs of the domestic markets.
The company is already working on a new fabrication plant, which will produce 100,000 wafers per month, and is expected to be finished this year. But as per Reuters, it looks like YMTC is going above and beyond that. It is reported that YMTC is planning to build two additional fabs, each producing 100,000 wafers for a combined 200,000 wafers per month. With the construction of these three fabs in place, YMTC will dial up its wafer capacity by 300,000 per month, or double the current amount. Currently YMTC has a wafer production capacity of 200,000, with these new plants, it will be uplifted to 400,000 wafers per month.
Chinese chipmaker Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) aims to build two more factories in addition to one that will be completed this year, which will more than double its production capacity when all three are up and running, people familiar with the plans said.
The three new plants will each have the capacity to produce 100,000 wafers per month when fully operational, said three sources who were not authorised to speak to media and declined to be identified.
via Reuters
YMTC has also uplifted its domestic market with the assembly and construction of the latest fab. It is said that more than 50% of the equipment, materials, and tools have been sourced from domestic suppliers. It also includes tools for vertical stacking, which is something that China is definitely eyeing, as another firm, CXMT, is reportedly developing 3D DRAM.
All three new plants will allocate some capacity to DRAM production, two sources said, adding that the exact amount will depend on the company's progress in developing those chips.
YMTC has sent low-power DRAM (LPDDR) samples to clients and expects feedback by the end of the year, which will inform DRAM production decisions, they added.
via Reuters
Memory is also going to be a crucial focus, as these new plants will also have some capacity dedicated to DRAM production. It is not reported what level of production for DRAM will be handled by the Fabs, but it is reported that YMTC has already sent out LPDDR samples to clients.
With higher capacity and DRAM production on the way, YMTC could potentially hit a global NAND share beyond 14% (currently at 11.8%). This puts the company in the same range as SK Hynix, Kioxia, & Micron.
News Source: Reuters
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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