M+W Zander named general contractor of $4.2 billion Fab 2 project

The international engineering company M+W Zander has been awarded a contract for approximately $817 million from GlobalFoundries, to engineer and construct its new semiconductor wafer facility "Fab 2." The site is located at the Luther Forest Technology Campus. The $4.2 billion facility will initially produce 300-millimeter-wafers at the 28-nanometer node for a variety of clients. The order for M+W Zander provides a full "turnkey" solution for the construction of the facility. M+W Zander is providing full architectural and engineering services, construction management for the entire project as well as general contracting for all of the technical areas to include the manufacturing spaces, building utilities, central utility building and process systems. The Fab 2 complex will consist of four major buildings totaling 1.45 million s/f, including a 300,000 s/f class 100 clean room wafer fabrication building, a "spine" support building, an administrative office building and a central utility building (CUB) along with service yards and small support buildings. Construction is expected to take about two years to complete, and 12 to 18 months to ramp to full operating mode. Initial production is expected to begin in 2012. Rick Whitney, president of M+W Zander in the U.S., said, "We appreciate the confidence GlobalFoundries has shown in M+W Zander. We are looking forward to designing and building a globally competitive foundry manufacturing facility in the upstate N.Y. area." "This new major order strengthens our global leadership as the engineering and construction partner for the semiconductor industry," said Jürgen Wild, CEO of M+W Zander Group.