OCT. 15–SHANGHAI– Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. says its second and third chip plants here have begun operations, a year after its first plant went into production.

The company expects its total production capacity to reach 37,000 wafers per month by the end of this year.

In April 2000, with an investment of $1.6 billion during the initial phase, the company, set up shop in Zhangjiang High-Technology Industrial Park in Pudong, and is specializing in 12-inch wafers and microchips from 0.25 to 0.18 microns.

Zhang Rujing, president of the company, says the firm, in cooperation with its technological partners, has developed the technology to manufacture 0.18-micron microchips for the first time on the mainland.

There are about 3,000 researchers and managerial professionals working for the company, including about 160 from the United States, 500 from Taiwan, 80 from Singapore, Korea and Japan, and approximately 30 from Europe