The Economic Times

Saturday, September 13, 2003

Matsushita to expand chip plant in Singapore

REUTERS

TOKYO: Matsushita Electric Industrial, maker of Panasonic products, said on
Friday it would invest $85 million over the next three to five years to
expand its semiconductor factory in Singapore.

One-third of the investment, or S$50 million, will go towards the start of
production of charge coupled device image sensors, used in digital cameras
and photo-snapping mobile phones, Matsushita said in a news release.

Handset makers have struggled to meet booming demand for camera phones
because production has been hampered by the lack of supply for essential
components such as CCDs.

Matsushita, the world's second-biggest consumer electronics maker, said it
expected CCD sales to comprise 30 per cent of its total semiconductor
revenues over the next three to five years.

The plant, Matsushita Semiconductor Singapore Ltd, will be the first factory
operated by a Japanese company to manufacture CCDs outside of Japan.

"We are expecting a threefold sales increase over the next three to five
years, and in order to meet such demand, we are planning to increase
production of existing products, as well as our workforce by 60 per cent
over the same period," Yukio Furuta, vice president of Matsushita's chip
business, said in a statement.

It plans to invest the other S$100 million to expand the production of LSI
(large scale integration), or "system" chips that combine multiple functions
onto one piece of silicon, and optical readers used in DVD and CD players.

Shares of Matsushita rose 0.13 per cent to 1,492 yen by midday, compared
with a 0.69 per cent rise in Tokyo's electric machinery sub-index.

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