THE floods in Thailand have claimed another semiconductor victim, with STATS ChipPAC deciding to abandon its assembly operations in its damaged plant.
STATS ChipPAC is a semiconductor test and advanced packaging service provider. Its plant was located in the Navanakorn Industrial Estate. Equipment and facility both suffered extensive damage during the floods at the end of 2011.
The firm had tried to restore the plant from the flood, but said it was taking too long and missed its deadline to be online by January.
According to the company, the decision to give up on the plant will affect 12 percent of its workforce (approx 1250 people), who will be let go with severance benefits and support.
Partial wafer-level chip-scale packaging (WLCSP) and test operations will continue in Thailand for a while yet, but the company will be shifting production to its other manufacturing facilities which are located in Singapore, Korea, and China.