Yageo Corp to invest NT$10 billion to build a plant for high-end MLCC and other passive components used in vehicles
28 August 2023
Yageo Corp., one of the leading passive electronics makers in Taiwan, is planning to invest NT$10 billion (US$325 million) in Kaohsiung over the next three years, the company said Friday. The company said it will upgrade its technology over three years and roll out high-end passive components in the southern city.
Passive components refers to a wide range of electronic items such as chip resistors, inductors and multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCC) used in the production of many consumer electronics devices.
As part of its three year investment program, Yageo said, the NT$10 billion investment will cover the cost of land and plant construction, purchase of production equipment and environmental protection needs. The board meeting on Friday approved a proposal to spend NT$790 million to buy a plot of land in Kaohsiung's Dafa Industrial Park owned by the Ministry of Economic Affairs to build a new plant, and the total floor area at the new plant is expected to hit 16,000 ping.
On its website, Yageo said it is the largest chip resistor supplier and the third largest MLCC supplier in the world. Yageo operates three MLCC plants now: two in Kaohsiung and one in Suzhou, China.
Yageo said the investment would boost its MLCC capacity by 20 percent to 60 billion units a month by the end of next year, compared with 50 billion units by the end of this year.
In 2020, the capacity is to climb to 70 billion units a month, it said.
At a time when some Japanese firms are withdrawing from large and medium-sized MLCC production, Yageo has decided to expand production to fill the void.
In addition, Yageo said it remains upbeat about future demand for high-end passive electronics components, in particular from clients in the automotive electronics industry. On that basis it was decided to increase investment to meet future demand.
Yageo said its continued concerns over the escalating trade friction between the United States and China also prompted the decision to allocate more resources to Taiwan in a bid to offset the impact.
