SanDisk Corp. opens today (Sep 27, Shanghai Time) its new $170 million factory in Shanghai’s Zizhu Science Park.
The new SanDisk facility in China will assemble and test flash-memory products for mobile phones, adding to an influx of semiconductor companies investing in high-tech plants in the world’s biggest developing economy.
The SanDisk Semiconductor (Shanghai) Co. will employ more than 700 workers initially. Unlike plants from Intel or Hynix which manufacture their own chips, the Shanghai plant of SanDisk will be a “back-end” facility, meaning that it won’t make chips from silicon wafers but will test and assemble components that are manufactured at its plants in Japan. SanDisk operates other chip-manufacturing plants through an agreement with Japan’s Toshiba Corp.
SanDisk joins a burgeoning roster of global technology firms doing their productions in China to tap rising demand for chips used in mobile devices and other consumer electronics.
[Via: Wall Street Journal]