Chang Wah to double QFN leadframe capacity in 2020

Leadframe specialist Chang Wah Technology (CWTC) has disclosed plans to expand production capacity for QFN (quad flat no-lead) leadframes at its factory sites in China and Taiwan this year.

CWTC said its combined monthly production capacity at plants in Taiwan and China are expected to double from the current level to 2.2 million pieces by the end of 2020. Its long-term goal is to reach a monthly capacity of three million pieces for a global market share of 10-12%, and the company expects to be able to set market specs for high-end QFN products.

Now maintaining full capacity utilization at its production complex in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, CWTC is building new etching lines there to expand capacity for QFN leadframes. It will also purchase equipment, technology and patents from its Japanese affiliate Ohkuchi Materials (OM) to expand its high-end QNF market share.

The company will also build a new plant in China and expand its production in Malaysia, so as to better serve packaging clients in Taiwan, China, and Southeast Asia in response to supply chain localization in the wake of the US-China trade war.

CWTC manager SF Su said that its second-quarter revenues are expected to surge sequentially and annually, but third-quarter prospects are hard to predict due to high uncertainty. But Su disclosed his company has received many orders shifted by backend houses in Taiwan and China from other suppliers amid the US-China trade war and the pandemic, as their inventory has run low and few peer makers enforced capacity expansion in 2019.

The company cited a market report indicating that up to 165 billion ICs or 66% of total global IC shipments in 2019 were packaged with leadframe-based SO, QFN and QFP processes, and the corresponding numbers will expand to 190 billion and 68% by 2025.