Matsushita to produce semiconductors in RI
Matsushita to produce semiconductors in RI
KARAWANG, West Java (JP): The president of PT Matsushita
Semiconductor Indonesia broke the ground here on Thursday to
start the construction of an assembly plant that will produce two
million semiconductors per month.
"Matsushita Semiconductor will produce 700,000
microcontrollers and 1.3 million integrated circuits (ICs) per
month in 1998," the company's president, Takeshi Kato, said at
the ceremony.
The company, established with a capital of US$60 million, is
65 percent owned by Matsushita Electronics Corporation and 35
percent by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., both of
Japan. The plant, when operational, is expected to employ 200
workers.
The president of Matsushita Electronics , Kazuhiko Sugiyama,
said that all of the plant's products will be exported to
neighboring Southeast Asian countries.
He said the plant will be Matsushita's fifth production unit
outside Japan after those in Singapore, the United States, China
and Malaysia. It will be Matsushita Electronics' largest
semiconductor assembly plant in Asia and will focus on producing
the leading-edge microcomputer and bipolar ICs.
He added the Malaysian and Singaporean plants produce other
sorts of semiconductors such as memory chips.
Indonesia currently has two companies producing
semiconductors, PT Omedata in Bandung, West Java, and PT Astra
Microtronics Technology in Batam, Riau.
Two other firms, PT Sharp Semiconductor and PT NEC Humpuss
Semiconductors Indonesia, also intend to produce semiconductors
in 1998.
Sharp Semiconductor, owned by Sharp Corporation of Japan, will
produce 20 million ICs and opto-device components per month in
its factory, which is also under construction in this town.
NEC Humpuss Semiconductors Indonesia, a joint venture between
NEC Corporation of Japan and PT Humpuss Elektronika, will produce
15 million ICs and 100 million signal transistors from its plant,
which is under construction in Bekasi, West Java,
State Minister for Investment Sanyoto Sastrowardoyo said in
his speech at Thursday's ground-breaking ceremony that
investments in the electronics industry have steadily increased.
"Foreign investments approved by the government for the
establishment of electronics plants increased to $936.7 million
in the period of 1989-1994 from $44.7 million in 1984-1989,"
Sanyoto said, adding that the period of April 1994 to March 1996
saw the approval of $1.3 billion in investments for the
electronics industry.
A U.S. market research agency, Dataquest Inc., said earlier
this year that the sales of semiconductors in the Asia-Pacific
region grew by 48 percent to $33.5 billion last year from $22.58
billion in 1994.
Sugiyama said that production of electronic equipment using
semiconductors as the main components is expected to continue
growing rapidly in the 21st century.
He added that Asia is becoming the supply center of such
products for the entire world. (kod)