Sony to build semiconductor plant in China Report

["Ulhas Joglekar" <joglekarulhas@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Times of India

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2002

Sony to build semiconductor plant in China: Report

REUTERS

TOKYO: Consumer electronics giant Sony will build a semiconductor assembly
plant in China to keep up with increasing production shifts to that country
by client electric equipment makers, a Japanese newspaper said on Sunday.

Sony is likely to build the plant at a production base in Wuxi in eastern
Jiangsu Province where it already produces notebook computers, including the
Vaio, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun quoted company sources as saying.

Investment is likely to be 10 billion yen ($78.10 million) and the plan will
be run by Sony's subsidiary in Beijing.

Semi-finished chips will be brought to the plant from Sony's plants in Japan
and completed for use in digital cameras and the hit PlayStation 2 game
console turned out by Sony Computer Entertainment, the newspaper said.

Sony, the world's largest consumer electronics maker, has so far shifted
chip-assembly operations to Thailand to cut costs and the latest decision,
following a flood of Japanese firms seeking to take advantage of China's low
labour costs is part of a cost-cutting drive, it said quoting the company
sources.

Major domestic chipmakers, including Toshiba and Hitachi have already
shifted assembly operations to China.

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