SIMMTECH Holdings Inc, a multinational company (MNC) in printed circuit board (PCB) and packaging substrate for the semiconductor industry, has chosen an 18-acre site at the Batu Kawan Industrial Park (Penang) for its first large scale factory in Southeast Asia.
Via its Malaysian subsidiary, Sustio Sdn Bhd, Phase One of the Cheongju (South Korea)-based Simmtech investment would be US$120 mil, with operations expected to commence in 1Q 2022.
This new facility in Penang is expected to create 1,200 high value jobs in engineering, manufacturing and quality management by 1H 2023.
“The state-of-the-art facility in Penang will further strengthen Simmtech’s dominant market position and to meet the heighten demand from Double Data Rate 5 Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DDR5 DRAM) as well as data storage devices and packaging substrate products,” commented Simmtech Southeast Asia managing director Jeffery Chun.
“Notably, our presence in Penang will be an added advantage for Simmtech in terms of the close proximity to our major customers in this region, thereby enabling greater value creation.”
According to World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS), the worldwide semiconductor market is forecasted to increase by 19.7% in 2021, followed by another 8.8% growth in 2022 to reach US$573 bil.
Specifically, the memory semiconductor sub-segment market is estimated to experience the fastest growth among all semiconductor subcategories at 31.7% in 2021 and 17.4% in 2022 and is expected to reach a value of US$182 bil in 2022, representing circa 32% of the total worldwide semiconductor market for the year.
Full swing
Once in full swing, Simmtech production capacity in Penang will represent 20% of the group’s current combined capacity in South Korea, China and Japan.
Awarded “World Class Products” by the South Korean Government, Simmtech is also recognised as the “Best in Class Supplier” among its global tier-1 semiconductor customers. With a US$1 bil revenue in 2020, Simmtech recorded a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11% in 2016-2020.
Simmtech’s strategic investment will complement Penang’s semiconductor supply chain which houses prominent players such as ASE Electronics, Broadcom, Infineon, Intel, Microchip, Micron, Renesas Electronics, TF AMD and Western Digital, among others.
Being one of the renowned global players in memory-use PCB technology and by virtue of the company owning the biggest market share in the memory module PCB and packaging substrate BOC (board on chip), Simmtech’s presence is poised to strengthen Penang’s ecosystem in the memory sub-category.
Penang currently houses a number of PCB manufacturing players including Ibiden, ELNA PCB and home-grown companies QDOS Flexcircuits and GUH Holdings.
The addition of Simmtech is a great testament to the State’s ecosystem that gains traction from global leaders in PCB manufacturing. – July 30, 2021
