Taiwan-based New Kinpo Group expects construction of a NAND flash packaging factory in Brazil to complete by the end of March with trial production to begin in May, according to the group.

The factory is a joint venture between New Kinpo, Taiwan-based flash controller IC design house Phison Electronics and IC packaging and testing service provider Dawning Leading Technology as well as China-based memory module maker Shenzhen Longsys Electronics, it said. The factory has initial paid-in capital of US$20 million, with New Kinpo holding a 55% stake and the other three partners each having 15%, the group noted.

Five years ago, New Kinpo set up a production base in Brazil to produce set-top boxes (STBs), hard disk drives (HDDs), modems and motherboards for the local market. Because demand for NAND flash is increasing fast in the Brazil market amid fast growing use of smartphones and because Brazil regulations require that certain minimum percentages of end products for sale in the country be locally produced, New Kinpo is therefor setting up the factory to supply eMMCs (embedded multimedia cards) and other mobile memory products for the Brazil market, the group explained.

New Kinpo said it is likely to seek another one or two strategic partners for additional investment in the factory by the end of 2016 but it will maintain a stake of at least 60%.