Motorola to pump $3.4 b. into China

In the biggest investment in China by a foreign chipmaker, Motorola said it

put $3.4 billion into expanding its operations there, including a $1.9 billion

chip fab at the company's semiconductor complex in Tianjin, 100 miles from

Beijing.

The facility, which will employ some 2,400 people, will produce a broad range

of ICs for consumer, automotive and telecommunications applications,

particularly cell phones whose use is expected to increase 37 per cent a year

for the next five years. The facility's output will be sold to Motorola

customers in China and elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region.

Motorola chairman and chief executive. Christopher Galvin said the Motorola

Tianjin Integrated Semiconductor Manufacturing Complex will be one of the

world's largest semiconductor production facilities. Galvin said China would

easily absorb the impact the new fab will have on supply. China's domestic

semiconductor market is growing at 17 per cent a year and is expected to reach

$18 billion by 2004, the company said. And China's population of 1.25 billion

has barely begun to consume the volume of ICs most consumers in the Western

world use.