Why does Sony produce semiconductors in Thailand?
Sony has started operations at a new factory in Thailand dedicated to image sensors for self-driving cars. The Japanese company is attracted by low labor costs, but will it be able to find qualified workers?
Japanese electronics company Sony announced Thursday that it has started operations at a new semiconductor factory in Thailand dedicated to image sensors for car-assisted driving systems that help detect pedestrians and obstacles.
HOW MUCH SONY SPENT FOR THE NEW FACTORY IN THAILAND
Sony invested around 10 billion yen ($66 million) to build the new factory, which is located near an existing factory in Pathum Thani province in central Thailand. The new structure has increased the production scale of the site by 70 percent and should allow the creation of two thousand jobs, mostly engineers.
HOW THE PRODUCTION CYCLE WORKS
The factory is integrated into a supply chain that begins in Japan, where the initial processing of the circuits on the wafers ("slices" of semiconductor material) takes place, which are subsequently exported to Thailand for cutting and packaging into finished products, i.e. – as mentioned – image sensors for assisted driving systems.
FORECASTS ON THE ASSISTED DRIVING MARKET
Sony estimates that the development of assisted and autonomous driving will lead to an increase in demand for its high-performance image sensors: the company expects to reach a 25 percent share of this market in 2025, 14 percent more than current levels.
NOT JUST SENSORS FOR CARS: ALSO HARD DRIVES FOR DATA CENTERS
In addition to mobility sensors, the new Thai factory will also produce laser diodes for high-capacity hard drives used in data centers. These diodes will be supplied to Seagate Technology , a US company specializing in data storage.
THE ADVANTAGES OF THAILAND
The main advantages of Thailand as a manufacturing location are – according to the local subsidiary of the Japanese group, Sony Device Technology (Thailand) – “significant advantages in terms of costs, including labor costs”. The latter, however, are expected to increase soon, as the Thai government has announced its intention to raise the minimum wage.
More than the cost of labor, however, the real problem for Sony could be the availability of sufficiently qualified workers. The company, in fact, has made it known that it wants to launch collaborative initiatives with Thai universities for the research and hiring of engineers.
In this regard, Thailand's strategy for artificial intelligence also includes the development of a workforce specialized in new technologies: 1 billion baht (around 30 million dollars) will in fact be allocated for the training of thirty thousand workers in the field of 'artificial intelligence.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/sony-thailandia-semiconduttori/ on Fri, 29 Mar 2024 11:18:04 +0000.