(Yicai Global) July 23 -- Hon Hai Precision Industry, better known as Foxconn, has started building a high-end semiconductor assembly and test project in the port city of Qingdao in East China’s Shandong province, but not for the CNY60 billion (USD8.6 billion) media claimed, it said yesterday.

Qingdao West Coast New Area and Foxconn penned the corresponding agreement for online in deference to the Covid-19 pandemic then raging on April 15, The Paper reported the same day. The project is set to go into operation next year and reach its design capacity in 2025. Foxconn has stated no specific investment amounts, however.

The project will use high-end technologies to assemble and test chips for the fifth-generation communications and artificial intelligence applications which are growing rapidly in demand, the company said.

The plant has broken ground, Taiwanese newspaper Digi Times reported yesterday, citing an insider. The plant is designed to produce 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, the source said.

“The reported investment amount is incorrect. Please await our press release upon official signing,” Foxconn told The Paper yesterday.

The project’s first phase will be around 77,527 square meters in constructed area for CNY535 million (USD76.4 million) and about 6,000 square meters for sterile workshops and will have the capacity to assemble and test 30,000 12-inch wafers a month, Qingdao West Coast New Area Public Resources Exchange stated in an announcement of the project’s general contracting in May.

Editor: Ben Armour