Mitsubishi to Stop DRAM Manufacture in Germany
Staff -- Semiconductor International, 6/1/1998
Large losses suffered by the Memory Production Division of Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (Tokyo, Japan) have led to the company's decision to have its subsidiary, Mitsubishi Semiconductor Europe GmbH, stop manufacturing 16Mb DRAMs in Germany -- possibly this month. The German operation has assembled 1.5 million DRAMs monthly. Mitsubishi Electric will assign its U.S. subsidiary to assemble the same type of chips. The move is part of a program to restructure the company's global semiconductor business.
Earlier, Mitsubishi had announced a plan to shut down some production lines at its factories in Fukuoka and Kumamoto, Japan. It also plans a partial closure of some production lines at its U.S. semiconductor plant. Once its restructuring program is completed, the semiconductor section will try to achieve an annual production capacity of chips worth a total of ~$5.2 billion on a consolidated basis by fiscal 2000, up from the projection of ~$4 billion for fiscal 1997.
The plant shutdown is expected to cut a total of 150 jobs. Consolidated operating losses of Mitsubishi Electric's Semiconductor Division are expected to reach ~$547.2 billion in fiscal 1997.
