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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Paul Engel who wrote (47070)	2/3/1998 8:55:00 PM
From: Ibexx	Respond to of 186894

Paul and thread, Not sure if this has been posted: _______ INTERVIEW-Intel Costa Rica seen exporting soon By Michael Christie SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Top computer maker Intel INTC.O Corp plans to start exporting semiconductors from its new Costa Rica assembly line in the middle of next month, a company official said. INTERVIEW-Intel Costa Rica seen exporting =2 Danilo Arias, corporate affairs manager at Componentes Intel de Costa Rica S.A., said in its first 12 months of operations, the Intel plant's first production line is expected to export $700 million worth of output. After completion of a second production line by the middle of 1999, exports of the company's second generation Pentium II microprocessor should reach $1.5 billion a year, of which an initial 25 percent is value-added, rising to 40 percent over time. INTERVIEW-Intel Costa Rica seen exporting =3 "In just 11 months we will have gone from ground-breaking to production. That may not be unusually fast for Intel but for Costa Rica it is definitely not usual," Arias told Reuters. At the Intel site near San Jose's international airport, a Free Trade Zone allowing for tax-free primary materials imports, earth has been cleared for four production lines. Management and support staff are working out of a temporary hangar structure while the first production line is being completed and tested in a brand new factory building behind it. INTERVIEW-Intel Costa Rica seen exporting =4 "The only thing left to do on the structure of the plant is external manicure," Arias said. An official ceremony as the first Costa Rica-assembled semiconductor rolls off the line has been set for March 18. The only thing that could cause a delay in production is a protest by some members of the local community against high- tension electricity pylons that the state-run energy and telecommunications firm ICE plans to erect to supply the Intel site with energy. INTERVIEW-Intel Costa Rica seen exporting =5 "We have a normal business contract with ICE. How they get the energy to us is not our concern," said Arias. "We expect the problem to be resolved. Otherwise we will take alternative measures." Intel's total investment in this Central American country will amount to $500 million when the site is fully developed. The company has already contracted 850 staff, 70 percent of whom will be involved in the manufacturing process. INTERVIEW-Intel Costa Rica seen exporting =6 Local suppliers are being brought up to international Intel standards though some products, such as static-free boxes, are not yet available in Costa Rica and will initially have to be imported. Arias said the natural market for microprocessor exports is South America. But there are currently few computer manufacturers on the continent, except for some small companies in Brazil and some Mexican "maquilas", or assemblers, and the plant is expected to ship straight to Intel clients around the world. INTERVIEW-Intel Costa Rica seen exporting =7 He said relatively low wage levels, combined with a highly- educated and easily-trained work force made the plant in Costa Rica competitive, though not with extremely low-wage countries like the Philippines. "Operating costs here are not irrelevant. But they are reasonable," he said. Management of the plant will eventually be totally Costa Rican after U.S. expatriates training Costa Rican executives hand over the factory in two years. REUTERS Rtr 17:35 02-03-98 _______ Ibexx Copyright 1998, Reuters News Service