Motorola denies plant sale report
23/7/2003 15:03
US electronic heavyweight Motorola will not sell its chip manufacturing
plant in Tianjin, north China, today's International Finance News said, quoting
Feng Jun, public relations manager of Motorola (China) Electric Co ltd.
Feng
made these comments yesterday when denying the recent media reports that the
company plans to sell the Tianjin plant in line with its global streamlining
program.
Cricizing these reports are totally groundless, he said production
at the Tianjin plant is still going on at a small scale.
"The plant is not
out of production at all, and its losses are not that big as exaggerated by some
media," he added.
Feng admitted Motorola is carrying on a streamlining
program, which affects the Tianjin Plant.
But he said the program is aimed at
making Motorola's investment and production in the semi-conductor area more
rational rather than selling the ailing plant.
According to previous media
reports, Motorola is most likely to sell the Tianjin plant, an 8-inch wafer
production complex in the city's Xiqing zone, to Semiconductor Manufacturing
International Corporation (SMIC), the country's leading wafer manufacturer, to
cut losses.
Huang Guimei with public relation of SMIC's Shanghai branch
declined to comment on the sale reports yesterday.
MOS stands for Metal Oxide
Semiconductor and 17 means it's Motorola's 17th wafer production factory in the
world.
MOS 17 was launched at the end of 1995 with an investment of US$1
billion to produce 8-inch wafer products, according to the International Finance
News.
The plant has been counting losses since its launch, though Motorola
didn't avail the figures.
Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news
|
