Kyocera to Invest $10.4 Mln on China Mobile-Phone Venture
By Luo Jun
Shanghai, Sept. 24 (Bloomberg)-- Kyocera Corp., the biggest maker of ceramic castings that protect semiconductors, will invest $10.4 million to take a 70 percent stake in a venture with China Zhenhua (Group) Science & Technologies Co. to make cell phones in the world's biggest mobile market.
China Zhenhua, based in Guizhou province, said in a statement that the venture will make phones using Qualcomm Inc.'s CDMA (code division multiple access) technology.
China surpassed the U.S. as the biggest wireless market in July, with 120.6 million mobile-phone users. China Unicom Ltd., the nation's second-biggest mobile-phone operator, will next year lease a new network based on CDMA technology to cover more than 200 cities, with capacity for 15.2 million users.
China has so far approved 19 companies to produce cell phones using CDMA technology, and all of them involve ventures with foreign companies such as Samsung Electronics, Sanyo Electric Co., and Motorola Inc.
Sanyo will begin making phones in November Tianjin Sanyo Telecommunication Equipment Co., a venture Sanyo established in 1995 with a Chinese partner, spokesman Derek Wentz said on Saturday. |
