Micron CEO says Singapore operations will be spared capex cuts

Singapore

NASDAQ-LISTED Micron Technology will "continue to make appropriate investments here in Singapore", chief executive Sanjay Mehrotra told The Business Times on Wednesday.

Such investments look set to include spending on technology and people - even as Micron pulls back on capital expenditure (capex) globally.

The Republic houses a centre of excellence for Micron, and is its main manufacturing site for cutting-edge 3D NAND flash memory products, Mr Mehrotra noted, at the launch of Micron's "multibillion-dollar" wafer fab expansion in the north of Singapore.

Micron now employs about 8,000 people here - more than one-fifth of the semiconductor workforce - and he told BT that it plans to hire another 1,500 people "over a couple of years", on top of 600 hires that have already been made for the new facility.

"Within the framework of our capex guidance, we are continuing to invest for the long-term objectives of our new technology ramp-up into production, again keeping an eye on our expected demand growth," he added.

Over the course of the year, Micron has lowered its capex forecast for 2019 from US$10.5 billion to US$9 billion. Mr Mehrotra had said in June that "we plan for capex to be meaningfully lower" in the next financial year.

But he added in the interview with BT that Micron - which has ploughed more than US$15 billion into Singapore since it entered the market in 1998 - is "continuing to invest in our NAND technology transition here".

3D NAND involves stacking memory cells in multiple layers for a lower cost per bit, and the new Micron plant is capable of 64-layer density now.

Mr Mehrotra told BT that the expanded facility - which is set to start output by year-end - will not add wafer capacity, but will be key "to advance to a higher number of layers".

"Singapore is our centre of excellence for NAND technology and production, and we don't produce NAND wafers anywhere else," he affirmed, adding that he has not seen any supply-chain diversion affecting operations here, despite global trade woes.

NAND products make up about 30 per cent of Micron's sales, which came up to US$$4.79 billion altogether for the third quarter to May 30.