How Nexperia’s China unit can meet chip orders amid European fabs’ suspended wafer supply

Nexperia’s China unit is expected to be capable of making deliveries to clients on the back of the domestic semiconductor supply chain – even though locking in that support could take at least six months, experts said – as the European fabrication facilities under the Dutch chipmaker’s head office continue to suspend the supply of wafers.

A number of Chinese fabs – including Wuxi NCE Power, Hangzhou Silan Microelectronics and Yangjie Technology – would be able to supply wafers to Dongguan-based Nexperia China, according to a report by industrial consultancy Zhineng Auto.

But the likely alternative domestic wafer supplier to Nexperia China could be a sister company of Chinese owner Wingtech Technology – Shanghai Dingtai Jiangxin Technology, also known as WingSkySemi – said Lin Shi, secretary general of the intelligent connected vehicles unit at the China-Europe Association for Technical and Economic Cooperation.

According to its website, WingSkySemi invested 12 billion yuan (US$1.7 billion) in a Shanghai fab that makes 12-inch wafers. Wingtech last month touted the facility to shareholders as “a pivot in its production capacity strategy for the Chinese market”, days before Dutch authorities took control of Nexperia over national security concerns.

That followed a pledge made by China’s Ministry of Commerce on Saturday that the agency was considering exempting some Nexperia orders from an export ban that it imposed after the Netherlands seized control of the Chinese-owned Dutch chipmaker.