 Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing had
ramped its 300mm fab to 10,000wspm by the end of the fourth quarter 2005,
according to financial records released today. This was up from the 3Q05
period's 7,600wspm figure.
However, the foundry is forecasting that
Fab7 wafer starts for the 1Q06 period will decline slightly to around
9,866wspm. Chartered was expected to continue to ramp the fab for IBM, which is
providing the microprocessor chip in Microsoft's Xbox 360 games console. Capacity
ultilization across Chartered's fabs, reached 70 percent in the fourth quarter
05 with the company forecasting ulitilization rates climbing to around 83
percent in the first quarter 06, though this will come from 200mm customers.
The company had secured over $600 million
US dollars in loans at the end of 2004 to fund capital equipment needed to
start the first phase of Fab7 ramp, which was officially put at 15,000wspm.
Chartered has also announced that it
expects capital expenditures in 2006 to be in the region of $650 million,
slightly up on the $628 million spent in 2005.
AMD announced recently that it would begin
production of its microprocessors at Fab7 earlier than previously forecasted,
which suggests that from the second quarter onwards Fab7 will again start
ramping. Chartered's capital spending could now be second half year loaded.
Broadcom, IBM, Agilent, MStar and MediaTek
in that order, are now Chartered's largest customers, with Broadcom and IBM accounting
for over 10 percent of revenues each in 2005. 90nm technology revenues also
passed the $100 million mark in the last quarter, which represents 28 percent
of overall revenues, after only the second quarter of volume production ramp at
Fab7.
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