NEC in Shanghai venture
Japan's NEC Corp has formed a joint venture to build China's most advanced semiconductor plant near Shanghai.
The new company, called Shanghai Hua Hong NEC Electronics, will design, manufacture and sell memory and logic chips, according to an IT Daily report.
Construction of the new plant began about two weeks ago and it is scheduled to begin making chips in volume in September 1999. When full production begins, its capacity will be equal to 20,000 eight-inch wafers per month, produced using 0.35-micron technology.
The new joint venture is being supported by the Ministry of Electronics Industry and is part of the '909 Project', the ninth of China's ambitious five-year plans. The project began last year and will run until 2000.
China is hoping to establish a strong conductor manufacturing industry.
This will be NEC's 17th semiconductor manufacturing plant and the eighth outside Japan.
