for the capacity to match demand it will take at least two to three years from now wong told reuters outbreak means shutdown companies like unisem have been ramping up but unisem with a market value of about 16 billion is still operating just 80 of its capacity to reduce a risk of mass infections on its factory floor that could lead to an entire plant shutdown while 98 of its staff are now fully vaccinated it has been forced to temporarily shut down its ipoh plant in northwestern malaysia twice since june due to an outbreak in the factory and a national lockdown order several automakers and semiconductor companies have said pandemicrelated disruption in malaysia has hit supply chains gms ceo mary barra explained earlier this month to fox business that we were hit maybe harder than most because some of the specific facilities in malaysia were heavily impacted by covid the gradual rampup at unisem matches that of many of its peers despite surging orders globetronics technology which makes optical sensors lightemitting diodes and integrated circuits for the likes of apple samsung electronics and german carmakers says its running 90 of its factory capacity and is also worried about rising costs weve had to stay adaptable and mindful of workers wellbeing during the lockdowns including offering various types of incentives like cash to keep employees motivated and productivity high heng charng yee vice president of business and operations told reuters the malaysian governments stringent workplace rules requiring frequent swab tests and limits on staff numbers for example have also added cost pressure she said theyll have to pay investors and analysts say the shortage is also the fruit of underinvestment in technology to make oldergeneration chips that can cost less than 1 widely used in auto industry as heavyweights such as samsung and tsmc ploughed billions into developing more powerful highend chips we always think of these backend semiconductors as lowmargin business but they suddenly have additional 510 pricing power said patrick chang asean regional chief investment officer equities at principal asset management bhd amid such demand unisem is pushing ahead with expansion at its plants in malaysia and china which will only come on stream 1215 months down the line we are cautious said chairman chia we have been hit blue and black before remember the dotcom days we tell them customers now to at least sign up for 70 of their forecast volume if they dont give me that full amount they will still have to pay reuters published on oct 20 2021 at 1154 am ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment 1 all comments post post find this comment offensive choose your reason below and click on the submit button this will alert our moderators to take actions reasons for reporting foul language defamatory inciting hatred against a certain community out of context spam others report join the community