(Yicai Global) May 6 -- GTA Semiconductor plans to invest more than CNY26 billion (USD3.9 billion) to build the next phase of its wafer production plant in the Lingang Special Area of Shanghai’s free trade zone.

GTA will finance the project’s second phase through newly-added fixed-asset investment, The Paper reported yesterday, citing the Shanghai-based company. No other details, including the construction schedule, were disclosed in the report.

The company, a unit of Huada Semiconductor, under state-owned China Electronics, completed the project’s first phase in March 2020. The CNY8.9 billion (USD1.3 billion) plant has a monthly production capacity of 60,000 eight-inch wafers and 3,000 12-inch wafers. According to media reports, the capacity to make 12-inch wafers will jump to 50,000 once the next phase is done.

Output from GTA, a major supplier to new energy vehicles makers, will help to ease the domestic shortage of chips for intelligent connected vehicles.

During Shanghai’s weeks-long Covid-19 lockdown, nearly 1,000 workers at GTA’s Lingang plant were living and working in a so-called factory bubble to keep capacity running at more than 98 percent, The Paper said, citing acting General Manager Zhou Hua.

Editor: Futura Costaglione