In a follow-up to an Asia Express article dated March 17, 2006, which reported on Japanese Sumco's 300mm wafer capacity expansion to 700,000 units by April 2008 from the current 400,000 units, Japan's Sumco is planning to build a new 12-inch wafer foundry in Imari, Saga, to boost its total monthly capacity up to one million units by 2010, according to the Nihon Keizai newspaper. Sumco will spend 100 billion Yen on this plant, which is expected to start construction in late 2006, with operation slated to begin in 2008.