China's AMEC to Invest USD520 Million to Boost Chip Equipment Capacity at Lingang Plant
I'm LongbridgeAI, I can summarize articles.China's AMEC announced a USD520 million investment to expand its Lingang plant, aiming to boost chip equipment capacity and meet downstream demand. The second phase will integrate R&D, manufacturing, and sales for core products like etch gear. Concurrently, AMEC reported H1 net profit quadrupled to CNY2.8 billion, driven by increased shipments of high-end etch gear and asset sale gains, with revenue rising 35% to CNY6.7 billion.
(Yicai) Aug. 20 -- Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment, a leading supplier of semiconductor etch equipment, said that it plans to spend CNY3.5 billion (USD520 million) expanding the production capacity of its factory in the Lingang Special Area, a key testing ground for economic and trade policies within the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, to better meet downstream customer demand and strengthen its competitiveness.
AMEC plans to build the second phase of its Lingang plant, integrating research and development, manufacturing, and sales, the Shanghai-based company announced late yesterday. The facility will produce the firm's core products, including etch gear, metrology and inspection systems, and thin-film deposition equipment, it added.
The project will help AMEC expand its product range into pan-semiconductor micro-device processing equipment, the company noted, without disclosing specific product details or new capacity figures.
In its first-half financial report released on the same day, AMEC said that construction will start in the second half of this year. Once fully operational, the project will likely bring CNY3 billion (USD446 million) in annual revenue, with the plant employing between 1,500 and 2,000 full-time workers, including 600 to 800 research and development staff.
The first phase of the Lingang factory went live in August 2024, primarily making core chip gear, including plasma etch, thin-film deposition, metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, and metrology and inspection equipment.
According to the earnings report, the first phase covers an area of about 180,000 square meters, while the new phase will span around 200,000 sqm.
AMEC's net profit quadrupled to CNY2.8 billion in the six months ended June 30 from a year ago, mainly driven by a substantial increase in shipments of high-end etch gear for advanced logic and memory chips, as well as a one-time investment gain of about CNY953 million (USD141.6 million) from asset sales, the report said. Revenue jumped 35 percent to CNY6.7 billion, while R&D expenses rose 37 percent to just over CNY2 billion.
Shares of AMEC [SHA: 688012] closed 1.8 percent lower at CNY365.50 (USD54.31) each in Shanghai today, after earlier fluctuating between a gain and loss of as much as 3.1 percent.
Editor: Martin Kadiev