China’s S J leases 8.5 acres in Batu Kawan for US$70m plant

PEN S J Electronics Sdn Bhd, the Penang arm of China's S J Electronics, has signed a lease with the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) for about 8.5 acres in Batu Kawan Industrial Park 3 (BKIP3), where it plans to invest more than US$70 million (about RM286 million) in a plant for advanced chip-packaging materials and to hire more than 1,000 people, mostly engineers. Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow announced the agreement at Komtar on 7 October 2026.

The plant

• Site: about 8.5 acres (3.44 hectares, roughly 370,000 sq ft) of BKIP3 land leased from PDC
• Phase 1: thermal interface materials (TIM), the layer that carries heat from a chip to its metal lid
• Phase 2: integrated heat spreaders, the metal lids themselves
• Customers: global and local; the company says making them in Penang shortens lead times and cuts warehousing and logistics costs for its customers here
• Jobs: more than 1,000, with internships and graduate training planned with local colleges
• Why Penang: founder Dr Fay Hua said the company needs to be able to make these materials in Asia outside China, not only in the US and China
• Not disclosed: the lease price and term, the size of the buildings and the construction timetable

Who S J Electronics is

• Parent: Ningbo Shijie Electronics Co Ltd (宁波施捷电子), set up in 2019 in Ningbo's Beilun district. It makes indium sheets used as TIM1 in processor packaging, and heat spreaders
• Claim to fame: the Penang government and InvestPenang call it one of only a few makers in the world, and the only one in China, able to mass-produce high-end indium-based TIM1
• Penang company: PEN S J Electronics was registered in Penang in July 2023 as a wholly owned subsidiary. It is led by Ooi Ing Chyuan
• First mention: in April 2024 Chow named "Ningbo SJ Electronics" as one of three Chinese chip firms, with China Wafer Level CSP and Wuxi AMTE, that planned US$100 million of investment in Penang between them, brought in by Blue Chip Venture Capital

The land

• BKIP3: PDC's 10th industrial park, 407 acres net in Bukit Tambun, built in four phases at a cost of RM2.2 billion. Ground was broken on 16 February 2024; PDC aims to finish it in August 2031
• Leased, not sold: PDC said in 2024 that BKIP3 plots would be leased for at most 60 years, unlike its older parks
• The going rate: in January 2026 PDC leased 3.06-acre Plot 5 in BKIP3 to a UMediC Group subsidiary for 60 years at RM85 psf, a rate PDC fixed and would not negotiate; UMediC said other BKIP3 leases were at a similar rate. At RM85 psf, 8.5 acres would come to about RM31.5 million before SST, although PEN S J's price has not been disclosed
• For comparison: TT Vision's 60-year PDC lease on Plot 81A in Bayan Lepas, signed in July 2025, works out to RM160 psf (our report)

At the signing, Chow repeated that Penang drew RM17.3 billion of approved manufacturing investment in the first half of 2026 (our report).

Cover photo: InvestPenang.