March 5, 2002 – Tokyo, Japan – Toshiba Ceramics Co., a high tech material manufacturer, said that it, and three other companies, have reached an agreement on the outsourcing of silicon wafer processing in China.

The deal, which involves with Ferrotec Corp., and Mitsui & Co. will help reduce the cost of silicon wafer processing for Toshiba Ceramics.

By transferring about 90% of its small silicon wafer processing functions to China, Toshiba Ceramics said it will benefit from cutting labor cost, reported Dow Jones and Co.

Toshiba Ceramics, a 40%-owned unit of Toshiba Corp., said it will sell off its small-diameter (6-inch or less) silicon wafer processing facility to Shanghai Shenhe Thermo-Magnetics Co., a manufacturing unit of Ferrotec.

Toshiba Ceramics said it will also transfer to the Chinese company its processing technology for an undisclosed fee.

Shanghai Shenhe will likely begin its processing in October, with an initial monthly capacity of 50,000 silicon wafers. Toshiba Ceramics said it hopes to raise the level of production to 400,000 wafers/month in the next two years.