Katherine,
does this amount to much?
Ramsey
Hitachi (6501) To Withdraw From US
Microchip Production
TOKYO (Nikkei)-Hitachi Ltd. moved on Tuesday to adopt a sweeping
restructuring plan centered around withdrawing from U.S.
semiconductor production and spinning off of its domestic
home-electronics plants into separate firms, company sources said.
Hitachi plans to halt the manufacturing of 4-megabit dynamic
random-access memory chips and microcontrollers at its U.S.
subsidiary, Hitachi Semiconductor (America) Inc., in late September,
dismissing all 500 production workers.
Hitachi intends to merge Hitachi Semiconductor, headquartered in
Irving, Texas, with Hitachi Micro Systems Inc. on Oct. 1, laying off an
additional 150 employees from Hitachi Semiconductor's sales division.
California-based Hitachi Micro designs microcontrollers and other
electronic devices.
Hampered by the worsening semiconductor market and aging
facilitates, Hitachi Semiconductor has seen earnings fall sharply. With
utilization rates low, the company has been in the red for some time.
Hitachi has apparently judged that the earnings environment for the
Texas firm will not improve any time soon.
After quitting the chip-production business in the U.S., Hitachi will
focus its operations there on developing and selling systems-on-a-chip
and other microchip devices.
Besides the U.S., Hitachi currently has production bases in Japan,
Singapore and Germany.
In another key streamlining move, Hitachi will spin off its three
home-electronics plants within a year, including its
videocassette-recorder plant in Ibaraki Prefecture. Hitachi will,
however, retain planning and development for consumer electronics in
its headquarters.
The planned divestiture is expected to reduce headquarters staff in
the home-electronics division from 1,500 to 1,000.
(The Nihon Keizai Shimbun Wednesday morning edition) |
