Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) held a ceremony on October 31 to mark the opening of its 12-inch wafer plant in Nanjing, China. Company chairman Mark Liu and CFO Lora Ho, which also serves as chairperson for TSMC Nanjing, participated in the ceremony.

Dubbed Fab 16, the new 12-inch fab has directly entered 16nm FinFET chip production with installed capacity reaching 10,000 wafers a month. Production capacity at Fab 16 will climb to 15,000 12-inch wafers monthly by the end of 2019, and reach 20,000 units in 2020, according to Ho.

Production at TSMC's new Fab 16 already kicked off in May, about six months ahead of its target schedule, Ho said.

TSMC in September 2017 held a ceremony to mark the start of equipment move-in at the new Nanjing plant. Morris Chang, TSMC founder and former chairman, remarked during the event that the facility would complete TSMC's ecosystem in China aimed to help boost the growth of China's local IC design sector.

TSMC saw sales generated from customers based in China account for 16% of its total wafer revenues in the third quarter of 2018, while North America remained its largest market, accounting for 61%, according to the company.