Water-efficiency efforts expected to mitigate price hike for major manufacturers

SINGAPORE’S upcoming water price hike will raise costs in major industries such as semiconductor and pharmaceutical manufacturing, but long-running efforts to raise water efficiency should keep the impact manageable, companies told The Business Times.

“The semiconductor manufacturing process is highly water-intensive, as vast amounts of purified water are required for chip fabrication,” said Ang Wee Seng, executive director of the Singapore Semiconductor Industry Association (SSIA).

But most new semiconductor fabs here are designed to recycle more than half their water usage, he noted. The impact of the price hike will vary, depending on where semiconductor player is along the manufacturing value-chain, he explained, based on questions from SSIA members.