Booming Chubu economy; Toyota increases investment, IBIDEN strengthens the production capacity
IBIDEN builds a new factory to increase production capacity for high-end IC substrates Economic activity of semiconductor-related industries in the Chubu region is booming thanks to the growing global demand for semiconductor chips. One of those company is IBIDEN, a major semiconductor packaging provider located in Gifu Prefecture which posted a significant increase in sales and profits in the interim results for the first half of FY 2021. Ibiden forecasts its sales for FY 2021 will increase about 24% year-on-year. Its electronic sector earned 60% of the company’s profit. To take advantage of the tailwind for semiconductor market, IBIDEN will invest 180 billion yen to build a new factory and increase production capacity for high-end IC substrates for applications such as servers and image processing units. IBIDEN schedules to start full production at the new plant in the fiscal year ending March 2024. A package board is a product that connects an IC chip and a printed wiring board