Taiwan's Investment Commission has approved an application filed by United Microelectronics (UMC) to indirectly inject a total of US$600 million into the pure-play foundry's new 12-inch wafer fab in Xiamen.

At UMC's most-recent investors meeting, company president Jason Wang indicated that the new Xiamen fab dubbed Fab 12X has begun shipping 28nm wafers with yield rates and chip performance reaching the same quality as its Fab 12A in Tainan, southern Taiwan.

UMC in November 2016 held an opening ceremony for Fab 12X, which is part of a 3-way joint venture foundry company between UMC, Xiamen Municipal Government and Fujian Electronics and Information Group. The fab is in mass production for 40nm and 28nm technologies, with a maximum design capacity of 50,000 wafers per month.