Jul 17, 2001 Fujitsu Ltd is in talks to sell a U.S. semiconductor plant, its last overseas chipmaking facility, to joint venture partner Advanced Micro Devices Inc, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said on Tuesday.
No immediate comment was available from Fujitsu, one of Japan's five big chipmaking conglomerates.
The Nihon Keizai business daily said in its evening edition that Fujitsu would later this month shut the Gresham, Oregon plant, which supplies a Fujitsu-AMD joint venture with flash memory chips used in mobile phones and other consumer electronics.
The flash memory market has been hit particularly hard by a slowdown this year in demand for mobile handsets, casting doubts over plans by Fujitsu, the world's third-largest flash memory producer, to boost production of the chips substantially this year.
Earlier, Fujitsu said it would temporarily halt output at some flash memory facilities in Japan in August and September.
Several other Japanese chipmakers have also announced plans to trim semiconductor output, particularly for use in cell phones, during the summer months.
Fujitsu's shares ended down 2.17% at 1,219 yen, reflecting overall weakness in shares of Japanese chipmaking conglomerates after a tumble in their U.S. counterparts. (Reuters News)
