Hitachi delays KL plant

Hitachi delays KL plant

TOKYO (AFP): Japan's Hitachi Ltd. and partner LG Semicon Co. Ltd. of South Korea are to delay construction of a 130 billion yen (US$1.2 billion) semiconductor plant in Malaysia, a Hitachi official said yesterday.

The official at Japan's biggest electric machinery maker said construction of the plant was initially scheduled to start in the first half to September 1996, but has been delayed due to the deterioration of the microchip market.

"It has now become impossible to start construction before year-end, but there is the possibility of doing so before the end of the fiscal year (to March), depending on market conditions," the Hitachi official said.

Under initial plans, Hitachi and LG Semicon had planned to start production of 16- and 64-megabit dynamic random-access memory chips at the Malaysian plant at a rate of 30,000 units a month, from early 1998, the official said.