(Yicai Global) May 9 -- Quick Intelligent Equipment, a Chinese maker of soldering gear, unveiled a CNY1 billion (USD145 million) plan to expand its production capacity of advanced semiconductor packaging equipment.

Quick will build a new plant in the Wujin High-Tech Industrial Development Zone in Jiangsu province, where it is headquartered, to research, develop, and produce chip packaging equipment, the firm said late yesterday. Construction is expected to be completed in 24 months, it added.

The company did not reveal any further details, but said it can make third-generation power chip packaging gear, which has a low localization rate and great market potential in China, and currently is able to provide customers the complete set of equipment and solution in power chip packaging process.

The project will help strengthen Quick’s research and development and innovation capabilities in the semiconductor equipment business, enhance its manufacturing capacity, and improve its brand awareness and market influence, the firm noted.

Quick’s stock price [SHA: 603203] closed 0.5 percent lower today at CNY29.44 (USD4.25), after increasing by as much as 3.4 percent in morning trading. The wider Shanghai market fell 1.1 percent.

Editor: Futura Costaglione