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Highlights of the day: 8-inch fab capacity expansion costly

DIGITIMES staff

Eight-inch wafer foundry service provider VIS is increasing its capex budget for 2021, with the sum mainly for manufacturing process conversion and facility maintenance. Despite short supply of foundry services, VIS says it is increasingly expensive to hike 8-inch capacity, and its production capacity will rise only slightly in 2021. For EMS provider Foxconn, one of its goals for 2021 is to improve its gross margin to 7%. PC shipments have been strong, but the AIO segment has seen slower growth than the average, according to Digitimes Research. AIO PC shipments are expected to drop in first-quarter 2021.

VIS raises 2021 capex: Eight-inch foundry Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS) has budgeted NT$5.1 billion (US$182.33 million) in capex for 2021, up from the NT$3.54 billion allocated last year.

Foxconn to improve gross margin to 7% in 2021: Foxconn expects to improve its gross margin this year to 7% in 2021, and will continue to deepen its deployments in a spate of segments including electric vehicles (EV), robots and semiconductors in the next few years seeking to ramp up gross margin to 10% in 2025, according to industry sources.

Global AIO PC shipments to fall in 1Q21, says Digitimes Research: Global AIO (all-in-one) PC shipments will be weighed down by lingering shortages of crucial parts and components to suffer a sequential decline of 17.5% in the first quarter of 2021, having edged up 3.3% to 3.54 million units a quarter earlier, according to Digitimes Research.