Outlook of Semiconductor Industry in Singapore

tradeees · Post by **tradeees** » Mon, 12 Jul 2010 9:39 am

Hi, I found this forum very resourceful and good. I just received an offer from a US based semiconductor equipment manufacturer in Singapore. Through this thread I would like to seek for your advice on the outlook semiconductor industry in Singapore and also the prospect to work in this industry. Thanks in advance.

serve_the_servants · Post by **serve_the_servants** » Mon, 12 Jul 2010 1:33 pm

The semiconductor industry is one of te most conjuncture sensitive industries on earth.

One of my friends works at IM flash (Intel spin-off), some months they hire 150 new staff (almost all foreigners), the other month they throw half of them out. As a result, they give her short duration contracts (3 months) etcetera.

Anyway. she told me that their are lots of over-time possibilities these months, so the industry must be on the way up.

Barnsley · Post by **Barnsley** » Thu, 15 Jul 2010 10:30 am

There seems to be a lot of activity at the minute.

Whether its inventory restock or new product who knows........

As I understand it "smartphones" are taking up a lot of capacity at the foundries at the minute and its very hard to get new product lines out.

Mad Scientist · Post by **Mad Scientist** » Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:03 am

Semi Con industries be it in wafer, packaging, in line, COB or die casting is very much linked to consumer purchasing pattern.
Usually in these industries, the rank and file is all temp as the book to bill ratio is very short. The BOM is only max at three months
So unless you are on the upper end of the scale, hire and fire is the name of the game

ksl · Post by **ksl** » Thu, 15 Jul 2010 5:05 pm

TSMC is a good indicator along with Taiwan exports data. Arm shares are shooting up very fast, to0. Inventories are stocked up, so i imagine there is more demand coming in the second half of 2010

http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/NewsS ... query=TSMC

tradeees · Post by **tradeees** » Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:44 pm

Thanks for all your valuable sharing.

How about the existence of semiconductor industry in Singapore? Personally, i found it very curious as there are a lot of Semiconductor factory here in Singapore. Is there any reason why those big companies willing to invest in Singapore instead of China, Taiwan, Vietnam or Malaysia where the labor cost is cheaper?

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:56 pm

Production quality. Or at least it was at one time.

Mad Scientist · Post by **Mad Scientist** » Tue, 20 Jul 2010 5:01 pm

tradeees wrote:Thanks for all your valuable sharing.

How about the existence of semiconductor industry in Singapore? Personally, i found it very curious as there are a lot of Semiconductor factory here in Singapore. Is there any reason why those big companies willing to invest in Singapore instead of China, Taiwan, Vietnam or Malaysia where the labor cost is cheaper?

For wafer industry per se, the Gahmen invested a considerable portion of $$ into bringing the heavyweight like Hitachi and the likes into setting up their plant here. Name one heavy weight from Oil & Gas to Semi Con , SG GIC has a hand in all of the set up here.
For the manufacturer if the Gahmen is willing to have some stake in the company to reduce liabilities why not. Apart from tax incentives, it ensure the locals here employed. Look at Matsushita Electronic in Bedok. They have been there since the 70s. When they announce retrenchment early 2004, EDB got involved and create R&D tax relief for Matushita Group. Imagine if Matsushita retrenched their staff in Bedok. Nearly 10,000 residents there will be out of work. Not to mention the vendors and suppliers. Hats to SG Gahmen for this as they are very pro business

tradeees · Post by **tradeees** » Tue, 20 Jul 2010 9:10 pm

I guess, the SG gahmen must be invest quite a far abit of money to remain those big semincon player in Singapore.....I hope the semicon industry are here to stay for long......all the best to everyone and me.

beppi · Post by **beppi** » Thu, 22 Jul 2010 11:25 am

Semiconductors is NOT a labour-intensive industry.
The financial environment (due to the very high investments needed to start a Fab), related experiences in the available workforce, IP protection and a reliable infrastructure are much more important deciding factors for locating a Wafer Fab than labour cost.
Singapore scores better in all of these than China, Vietnam and Malaysia. Taiwan is better than Singapore in some respects and thus has a bigger semiconductor industry.

Barnsley · Post by **Barnsley** » Thu, 22 Jul 2010 4:01 pm

beppi wrote:Semiconductors is NOT a labour-intensive industry.
The financial environment (due to the very high investments needed to start a Fab), related experiences in the available workforce, IP protection and a reliable infrastructure are much more important deciding factors for locating a Wafer Fab than labour cost.
Singapore scores better in all of these than China, Vietnam and Malaysia. Taiwan is better than Singapore in some respects and thus has a bigger semiconductor industry.

It depends on what level you are operating at, at the low-end its a lot more labour intensive than at the high-end which has a lot more automation in place at all steps on production.

At least thats my experience.

tradeees · Post by **tradeees** » Tue, 03 Aug 2010 10:53 am

beppi wrote:Semiconductors is NOT a labour-intensive industry.
The financial environment (due to the very high investments needed to start a Fab), related experiences in the available workforce, IP protection and a reliable infrastructure are much more important deciding factors for locating a Wafer Fab than labour cost.
Singapore scores better in all of these than China, Vietnam and Malaysia. Taiwan is better than Singapore in some respects and thus has a bigger semiconductor industry.

Thanks for your valuable comment. So, can I say that Semiconductor industry are here to stay in Singapore? Maybe for the next 10-20 years? I know this sound foolish, no one can predict the future but I just want to get the general idea from everyone. Hope you don't mind

Mad Scientist · Post by **Mad Scientist** » Tue, 03 Aug 2010 2:56 pm

I would say so. Too much money is at stake here. With Biopolis, Nano Technology , wafer and much more. It would be foolish if the Gahmen let the semi con industry slip of their hands

Barnsley · Post by **Barnsley** » Tue, 03 Aug 2010 5:03 pm

tradeees wrote:
beppi wrote:Semiconductors is NOT a labour-intensive industry.
The financial environment (due to the very high investments needed to start a Fab), related experiences in the available workforce, IP protection and a reliable infrastructure are much more important deciding factors for locating a Wafer Fab than labour cost.
Singapore scores better in all of these than China, Vietnam and Malaysia. Taiwan is better than Singapore in some respects and thus has a bigger semiconductor industry.
Thanks for your valuable comment. So, can I say that Semiconductor industry are here to stay in Singapore? Maybe for the next 10-20 years? I know this sound foolish, no one can predict the future but I just want to get the general idea from everyone. Hope you don't mind

As long as they are on the coat tails of Taiwan then they should be fine.

All the we deal with here in Singapore are operating at or close to capacity, so much so they are having to get some old steppers up and running to cope with demand!!!

tradeees · Post by **tradeees** » Wed, 04 Aug 2010 2:38 pm

I find more confident after reading all your comments. This forum is very resourceful. Thank you very much.

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Outlook of Semiconductor Industry in Singapore

Outlook of Semiconductor Industry in Singapore

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