Renesas invests $39.9M to add MCU capacity in Beijing

According to Renesas, its expanded facility in Beijing will operate as one of the world's largest MCU plants for back-end manufacturing.

By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News -- Electronic News, 3/25/2008

Renesas Technology Corp today announced plans to invest $39.9 million (4 billion yen) to add a new building at its back-end process plant, Renesas Semiconductor Beijing Co (RSB), to increase capacity for MCU production.

In doing so, Renesas aims to increase its current estimated global MCU market share from 25% to 30%. The move follows a building and manufacturing facilities sale in January to Mitsubishi Electric Corp as Japan-based Renesas honed its MCU focus. Renesas is also streamlining its back-end process resources by increasing production at overseas facilities for high-volume products to remain price competitive, the company said.

The new building is expected to be completed and ready for full operation by the end of fiscal 2008. The expansion effort is expected to increase the production floor area by 60%, from 18,000 m2 to 29,000 m2. The company estimated that with the expansion, RSB's total manufacturing capacity for MCUs, mixed-signal ICs, and other products will increase from 50 million units per month in fiscal 2007 to 100 million units in fiscal 2012. According to Renesas, the newly expanded facility will operate as one of the world's largest MCU plants for back-end manufacturing.

Besides RSB in Beijing, Renesas also owns a back-end process plant in Suzhou, China. Together, both plants manufacture 70 million units today, with total capacity expected to grow to 140 million units in fiscal 2012 after the new plant is operational, Renesas said.