As the United States keeps hammering down trade restrictions on China, the Chinese memory outfit YMTC has decided to ramp chipmaking capacity by building new fabs.
The semiconductor industry is caught in a trade war between two giants, with Washington leaning on export controls to choke off the tools needed to make chips.
Just recently, US lawmakers moved to ban exports of ASML DUV technology to China. The restrictions keep coming from multiple angles, so YMTC is taking the hint and trying to feed domestic demand without begging for foreign kit.
The company is already building a new fabrication plant that will produce 100,000 wafers per month and is expected to be completed this year. Reuters reports that YMTC is going further, planning two additional fabs, each producing 100,000 wafers per month, for a combined 200,000 wafers per month.
With three new fabs, YMTC would add 300,000 wafers per month, doubling its current output. It is currently at 200,000 wafers per month, and these plants would lift that to 400,000.
YMTC has been leaning on the local supply chain to get this far. More than 50 per cent of the equipment, materials and tools for the latest fab are said to come from domestic suppliers, including vertical stacking kit.
China is clearly eyeing stacked memory as a way around the blockers, with CXMT reportedly developing 3D DRAM. That sort of move matters because these new plants are expected to earmark some capacity for DRAM production as well.
All three new plants will allocate some capacity to DRAM production, two sources told Reuters, adding that the exact amount will depend on the company’s progress in developing those chips.
YMTC has sent low-power DRAM (LPDDR) samples to clients and expects feedback by the end of the year, which will inform DRAM production decisions, they added.
Memory is the centre of gravity here, and YMTC is trying to muscle into DRAM while expanding NAND. If it can execute, it could push global NAND share to more than 14 per cent from 11.8 per cent, putting it in the same bracket as SK Hynix, Kioxia and Micron.
