Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has started trial production of its integrated circuit manufacturing plant yesterday.
The plant is located in Shanghai Songjiang Export Processing Zone Area B. The Area B focuses on developing export-oriented enterprises that will support the IC industry.
"TSMC's IC manufacturing plant is situated in Shanghai Songjiang Export Processing Zone Area B, which is the second export processing zone within the district," said Sun Jianping, governor of Songjiang District government.
The plant would start mass production next year, Sun noted.
TSMC, the world's largest integrated circuits manufacturer, signed the contract to set up their IC manufacturing plant in Songjiang last year.
"The exports from the area in 2003 exceeded the total of the country's 18 other export processing zones, accounting for around 54 percent of all the 19 zones," said Sun.
The gross domestic product of Songjiang last year totaled 25.25 billion yuan (US$3.04 billion), a year-on-year growth of 38 percent, according to Sun.
The pillar industries of Area A, the first export processing zone, is electronics manufacturing and IT industry, represented by Dafeng (Shanghai) Computer Co Ltd, a subsidiary of the biggest notebook computer manufacturer, Taiwan Guangda Group.
Last year Dafeng produced about 10 million laptop computers with sales of US$5.7 billion, said Jammey Tang, Dafeng's vice president.
The firm expects a production of 12 million units and sales of US$8 billion by the end of this year, he said.