Hitachi halts closure of chip plants amid recovering demand

Tokyo, Japan – Recovering semiconductor demand has prompted Hitachi Ltd. to cancel plans to close a chip production line and an assembly and inspection subsidiary.

The company, which has been limiting capital investment in the chip business, had planned to close one of its four production lines by this spring at the Chitose, Hokkaido plant of subsidiary Hitachi Hokkai Semiconductor Ltd.

Hitachi also called off the planned takeover of its assembly and inspection arm in Yamagata Prefecture by Hitachi Yonezawa Electronics Co., another subsidiary in the prefecture, reported the Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

Last October, Hitachi announced a set of restructuring plans, including staff cuts and disposal of excess facilities. While most of the measures have been carried out, some were changed to account for stronger-than-expected demand for microcomputers used for home electronics appliances.

While Hitachi made 220 billion yen in capital investments in chip operations in FY00, it plans to trim the amount to 24 billion yen for the current fiscal year.

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