A few days ago, the international silicon carbide giant Ansomy announced that its expanded silicon carbide plant in Roznov, Czech Republic, was completed, and its production capacity will gradually increase in the next two years. Wolfspeed, another large silicon carbide plant, also said that it would build a new plant worth billions of dollars in North Carolina. With the accelerated penetration of new energy vehicles, the importance of silicon carbide technology has become increasingly prominent. The leading enterprises in the silicon carbide field, such as Ansomy, Wolfspeed and STC, all released positive prospects for the development of the industry and planned to invest to expand production capacity. A new round of detent war is being carried out among the large silicon carbide plants.
Radical production expansion
As a leading manufacturer of silicon carbide, the pace of production expansion this year is radical. On September 21, the expanded silicon carbide plant in Roznov, Czech Republic, was completed, and the capacity of the plant will gradually increase in the next two years. In August, the silicon carbide factory of Ansome in Hudson, New Hampshire, USA was completed and put into operation, which will increase the silicon carbide wafer production capacity of Ansome by five times year on year by the end of 2022. Ansome also invested US $1 billion in Fuchuan City, Gyeonggi do, South Korea, to establish a new research center and wafer manufacturing plant, which is expected to be put into production in 2025.
Wolfspeed, another large silicon carbide factory, did not slow down. At the beginning of September, it announced that it would build a new factory worth billions of dollars in North Carolina, which is expected to be completed by 2030. Previously, Wolfspeed also built the world's first 8-inch silicon carbide plant in New York State, with a total investment of $5 billion. John Palmour, chief technology officer of Wolfspeed, said that the new factory will actually eventually increase our silicon carbide wafer manufacturing capacity by 13 times.
Other silicon carbide head enterprises also have new investment and production expansion plans recently. Italy France Semiconductor and Marelli, the parts supplier, have reached a cooperation with to develop and produce higher integration and more efficient silicon carbide power electronics solutions for vehicles. SK Siltron plans to establish a joint venture with RFHIC and Yes Power Technix to develop silicon carbide and gallium nitride semiconductors.
The investment enthusiasm of Chinese local enterprises in silicon carbide is also very high. Tianyue Advanced disclosed at ICSCRM 2022 that its research and development of 8-inch silicon carbide substrate is progressing smoothly, with uniform and stable crystal form and good crystal quality. On this basis, Tianyue actively promotes industrialization. Jingsheng Electromechanical also said on the interactive platform that it has successfully grown 8-inch silicon carbide crystals.