Thursday, July 31, 2003
Infineon, Chinese partner plan $1 bn chip plant
Associated Press Frankfurt (Germany), July 28
German computer chip maker Infineon Technologies AG said on Monday that it would join with a local partner to sink up to $1 billion in a new chip plant near Shanghai.
Infineon said it and partner China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park Venture (CSVC), would initially spend $333 million over five years on the assembly and testing plant at Suzhou, 80 kilometers from Shanghai. More investment would follow later.
The plant would be a so-called "back end" facility, meaning that workers would cut up silicon wafers with chips already on them, put them in housings and test them. At full capacity, the plant would employ more than 1,000 people, the company said.
"With this partnership we are consistently building up our presence in China, the market of the future," Infineon chief executive officer Ulrich Schumacher said in a written statement.
Infineon would own 72.5 per cent of the venture and CSVC 27.5 per cent.
The Munich-based company has six other facilities in China, at Wuxi, Xi'an, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
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