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Sumitomo Bakelite (Taiwan) Co., Ltd., a joint venture between Chang Wah Electromaterials Inc. and Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd., held the groundbreaking ceremony for its new construction project in the Dafa Industrial Park of Kaohsiung on September 5, 2022. CWE Chairman Canon Huang and President Chuen-Sing Hung were invited to take part in the ceremonial shoveling of dirt to officially launch the project. With efforts from CWE, Sumitomo Bakelite provides additional investments for a new plant since its establishment in Taiwan back in 1998. The plant is of great significance to both CWE and Sumitomo Bakelite.

The new plant is scheduled for mass production in 2024, producing an additional 600 metric tons of epoxy molding compound (EME) per month. EME is used in wire bonding, flip chip packaging, automotive electronics-related motors, and high-end modules for self-driving cars. Once the new capacity starts to ramp up, the proportion of domestic production of key packaging materials is expected to rise, shortening the supply chain for local vendors and facilitating the industry chain developments of semiconductor, vehicle electrification, and self-driving car in Taiwan.

Canon Huang stated that the demand-supply gap of EME continues to widen in recent years as packaging and test facilities as well as IDMs expand their packaging capacity. The new expansion plan of Sumitomo Bakelite would hopefully restore the supply and demand of packaging materials in Taiwan to a healthy state. In addition to IC packaging, CWE would expand the applications of EME to cover microcontroller units (MCUs) and power modules. New production capacity is expected to benefit CWE from 2024.

CWE and Sumitomo Bakelite have been close, long-term partners. In anticipation of developments in the semiconductor packaging market, Chairman Canon Huang prepared CWE to be an agent of EME from Sumitomo Bakelite since the early stage of its establishment in 1989 and successfully convinced Sumitomo Bakelite to produce EME in Taiwan in 1998. The direct supply to local market further strengthens Taiwan's leading position in the global packaging industry. It had been over 20 years since Sumitomo Bakelite first established a manufacturing plant in Taiwan. The decision for a new plant at the urging of CWE is of great significance to both CWE and Sumitomo Bakelite.

▲CWE Chairman Canon Huang (third from right), CWE President Chuen-Sing Hung (second from right), Sumitomo Bakelite President Mitsuaki Naramura (fifth from left), the deputy secretary-general of the Kaohsiung City Government Chi-Chuan Wang (fifth from right) and other distinguished guests attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the new joint venture between CWE and Sumitomo Bakelite.

For more information, please access CITY NEWS on the Kaohsiung City Government website at https://reurl.cc/2mKXY6