Chartered appears to have delayed 300-mm fab again

Chartered appears to have delayed 300-mm fab again
SINGAPORE -- Silicon foundry provider Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Pte. Ltd. appears to have once again delayed its initial 300-mm wafer fab project by at least two quarters until the end of next year.

Chartered's 300-mm plant, called Fab 7, was supposed to be up and running in Singapore by mid-2003, according to the company's previous schedule. The Fab 7 building is ready for equipment installation, but based on the current assessment of the IC market, the plant will not move into production until "the end of 2003," said Chartered, which announced the new target today while releasing its fourth-quarter results.

The announcement represents the latest delay for the 300-mm fab. A year ago, the Singapore foundry announced plans to change Fab 7 from a 200-mm (8-inch) wafer plant to a 300-mm facility, which was scheduled to be up and running by the middle of 2002 (see Jan. 29, 2001, story ). The company said it planned to invest a total of $3 billion in the fab once it was fully equipped.

But last July, Chartered announced it was postponing the start up of its 300-mm fab by one year, until mid-2003, because of the severe downturn in the chip foundry business (see July 19 story ).

The disclosure follows the company's lackluster results for its fourth quarter (see today's story ).

During a conference call with financial analysts, Chartered CEO and president Barry Waite said the timing of the 300-mm fab is more of a "capacity statement" on when new volume is needed rather than a technology issue. All of the company's technology modules for 300-mm processes have completed development, Waite said.

Chartered today said its fab utilization rate in the fourth quarter was at 25%, up slightly from 22% in Q3. The company said it has trimmed capital spending plans to $400 million for 2002 from $490 million in 2001.

Most of the 2002 capital spending will be used to install advanced processes in Chartered's 200-mm Fab 6 facility and for R&D systems to develop 0.10-micron processes, said company officials during the conference call. The remaining funds in 2002 will most likely be used for Fab 7 automation systems and potentially some 300-mm tools, they said.

Waite told analysts that the current schedule is to begin equipment installation in Feb 7 by early 2003 so that the facility will be ready for initial production at the end of next year. He did not provide information about the planned ramp rate of Fab 7 or wafer-start targets by the end of 2003.