Hindustan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (HSMC) is set to announce the technology partners for its $4-billion semiconductor chip fabrication plants.
This is the first announcement after the notification of the semiconductor policy on March 22. The announcement of SemIndia’s $3-billion fab unit in Hyderabad, which is being set up in collaboration with Advanced Micro Devices, the world’s second-largest chip-maker, was made before the policy was unveiled.
Interestingly, the HSMC fabs will be based on technology from a consortium of European companies that could include at least one of the semiconductor biggies — Infineon and ST Microelectronics.
While confirming that the technological co-operation would come through a consortium, Devendra Verma, promoter, HSMC, refused to divulge the names of the partners, owing to a non-disclosure agreement.
The names will be made public on Wednesday in the presence of Union IT minister Dayanidhi Maran. Infineon is Europe’s largest and the world’s second-largest manufacturer of semiconductor products for the automotive and communications sectors. The $10-billion ST Micro, too, is a strong player in similar areas, with a leadership position in several segments. It was the number one supplier of camera modules for mobile phones in 2006, apart from semiconductors for set-top boxes and power-management devices.
It was also the third-biggest semiconductor supplier in China in 2005.
Verma is currently talking to at least five states for setting up the fabs. The location will be finalised in four weeks from the announcement of the tech co-operation, he said.
The company will focus on chipsets and other semiconductor products for the domestic electronics industry, mainly mobile phones, direct-to-home TV set-top boxes, automotive and smart cards.
The first unit is expected to cost roughly $1 billion. The HSMC announcement could be just one of the first announcements. More such can be expected in the coming days, now that the semiconductor policy is in place, though the industry feels some glitches need to be ironed out.
For starters, the cap on just 2-3 fabs for government sops has caught the industry by surprise while a 9% discount rate to calculate the net present value of the projects has met with some unhappiness. At last count, there were at least four projects vying for subsidies from the Centre, whose participation is crucial for the viability of the capital-intensive semiconductor ventures.
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1087475
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