Toshiba Corporation today has announced moves to reinforce its ability to meet growing demand in the Chinese semiconductor market that include taking full control of a manufacturing joint venture and a move to new manufacturing facilities. Toshiba will take full control of Wuxi Huazhi Semiconductor Co. Ltd by purchasing the stake of its partner, Huajin Electronics Group Corp., one of China’s leading semiconductor manufacturers. The company, established in October 1994 in Wuxi, to assemble and inspect bipolar and Bi-CMOS ICs for television and audio applications, will change its name to Toshiba Semiconductor (Wuxi) Co., Ltd. Toshiba will increase the capitalization of the company to $15 million and transfer operations to a newly developed industrial park at Wuxi, where a two-year, 5-billion yen investment programme will raise capacity, currently 3 million units a month, to 30 million units a month. The new facility will also diversify into discrete devices.
