TSMC has said that capital spending for 2008 will be approximately $1.8 billion, down from its revised final figure in 2007 of $2.6 billion, a 31 percent decrease year-on-year. Executives had previously stated that CapEx for 2008 would be significantly lower than the figure for 2007 but had not guided to specific levels. 

Chartered Semiconductor’s overall fab utilization rates have climbed from 70 percent in 1Q07 to 86 percent in 1Q08 and are expected to top 88 percent in 2Q08, the company noted in its first quarter 2008 financial results. 

As mentioned in Micron Technology’s most recent quarterly financial conference call, the deal with Nanya Technology on sub-50nm DRAM design and process technology - signed in March - has progressed to include a new 300mm DRAM manufacturing joint venture, dubbed MeiYa Technology Corporation. 

Process piping solutions provider NEHP, Inc. has moved its production facilities to a new 15,000 square-foot building in Williston, Vermont. With cleanrooms of class 1,000 and 10,000 and two demarcated fabrication and production areas in the building, the move also holds the promise of further expansion with permits for the addition of a further 10,000 square feet. 

Powerchip Semiconductor Corporation (PSC) has officially broken ground on its next two 300mm fabs, dubbed P4 and P5, at an estimated combined cost of approximately $8.2 billion. Each fab will have a capacity of 60,000 wafer starts per month (wspm) when fully ramped. 

Mark Durcan, Micron Technology’s President and COO, said during a conference call with financial analysts that the company would be delaying the production start of its IMFT joint venture 300mm fab, currently under construction in Singapore. 

Spansion has said that it has reached a ramp of 25,000 wafer starts per quarter at its 300mm fab (SP1) in Japan, producing 65nm MirrorBit NOR flash devices. Spansion is currently the only NOR flash memory manufacturer using 300mm wafers and migrating to the 65nm half-pitch node.