Simmtech opens advanced facility in Penang

Simmtech South-East Asia managing director Jeffery Chun (pic) said the facility under Simmtech’s subsidiary Sustio Sdn Bhd is expected to start delivering mass volume of substrate and PCB products to customers by the second half of this year.

BATU KAWAN: Simmtech, a South Korean-based manufacturer of printed circuit board (PCB) and packaging substrate for semiconductors, opens its first advanced manufacturing facility in South-East Asia in Penang to address the heightened industry demand.

Simmtech South-East Asia managing director Jeffery Chun (pic) said the facility under Simmtech’s subsidiary Sustio Sdn Bhd is expected to start delivering mass volume of substrate and PCB products to customers by the second half of this year.

Bernama reported Chun as saying that the facility on 7.3ha will be the group’s eighth factory along with its other operations in South Korea, China and Japan.

“Sustio’s factory in Penang will increase Simmtech’s total capacity of substrate and PCB by 20%, which will immediately improve the semiconductor industry’s supply constraint situation,” he told reporters yesterday.

Earlier, Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow officiated at the opening ceremony of Sustio’s factory here.

The event was also attended by South Korea’s ambassador to Malaysia Lee Chi Beom, Malaysian Investment Development Authority deputy chief executive officer Lim Bee Vian and special investment adviser to the Chief Minister of Penang, Datuk Seri Lee Kah Choon.

Chun said the RM600mil factory at Batu Kawan Industrial Park can produce up to 60 million substrate and two million PCB boards monthly.

“Sustio has already employed a workforce of about 700 for its Penang facility and it will reach its full employment of about 1,000 employees by next year,” he said.

He said the Sustio factory’s commencement is just in time for the new dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) technology transition.

“We have already engaged with our key customers for the new site qualification programme and we will ramp up this new site mainly for our DRAM and NAND customers worldwide,” he said.

Simmtech was founded in South Korea in 1987. It recorded revenue of about RM4bil last year and has around 4,000 employees globally.