Hitachi leaving the fight...
--- Hitachi Withdraws From Wafer Production ---
Hitachi will withdraw from wafer production next spring to concentrate
resources on the restucturing of its semiconductor business.
The Tokyo-based company produces about $86 million of wafers, including
5-inch, 6-inch, and 8-inch epitaxial wafers a year, primarily for
internal use. The company has been producing wafers for about 30 years.
Shin-Etsu Handotai, the world's largest wafer supplier and a major
supplier to Hitachi, will hire about two-thirds of the workers at
Hitachi's wafer unit and take over production there. Hitachi will lay
off the remaining workers.
Shin-Etsu said it plans to shift the production formerly done by
Hitachi to its own factories after about three years of transition.
With an anticipated loss of about $862 million for its current fiscal
year, Hitachi has appropriated an extraordinary loss of about $1.5
billion for a restructuring. About $776 million of the extraordinary
loss will be taken for a restructuring of the company's semiconductor
business, which is already under way.
The restructuring of the semiconductor business has included such
drastic measures as canceling in March the Twinstar joint venture with
Texas Instruments, the closure of a production line at Hitachi
Semiconductor (America), the shift of assembly operations of Hitachi
Semiconductor (Europe) to Malaysia, and the integration of domestic
assembly factories.
The withdrawal from wafer production is a part of the ongoing
restructuring. Last spring, Hitachi had closed an epitaxial wafer fab
that had operated for only one-and-a-half years.
The wafer market has been sluggish this year. The silicon wafer
committee of the Japan Society of Newer Metal had projected 8 percent
growth at the beginning of this year, but downgraded its estimate this
past summer.
"At present, the situation is severe," said Yasushi Kitamura, senior
managing director of Shin-Etsu Handotai. "But to maintain line
operation at a high level is important, so the transfer will bring a
good result in mid- or long-term."
TWA |
