Sumitomo Bakelite announced that it will expand production capacity for advanced semiconductor encapsulation materials in Suzhou, China, and Singapore. It plans to add lines at a new plant site in Suzhou and use a facility completed in 2024, with operations expected to begin in FY20230.
Sumitomo Bakelite announced that it will expand encapsulation material production capacity in Suzhou, China, and Singapore against a backdrop of growing demand for advanced semiconductors, particularly for generative AI and communications satellites. The expansion is intended to ensure stable supplies for increasingly dense, thin and large packages.
In Suzhou, the company will build an extension at the site of a new plant operated by 蘇州住友電木 and install production lines for the mold underfill encapsulation material “SUMICON EME” and the granular encapsulation material for compression molding, “SUMICON EME Version GR,” with operations targeted to begin in FY2030. It will also install new production lines for both products at its existing Singapore plant, with production expected to begin at the end of FY2028. Following the expansion, production capacity is expected to reach approximately 2x the current level for MUF encapsulation materials and approximately 3x for granular encapsulation materials.
After completion of the expansion plan, Sumitomo Bakelite expects to incorporate the production capacity of both encapsulation materials through its planned acquisition of Kyocera's chemical business, scheduled for the end of October, thereby strengthening its supply structure across its main production regions in Japan, China and Southeast Asia.