The Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) has
won orders from Spansion Inc to make and sell flash memory
components in mobile phones.
SMIC, the biggest made-to-order chip maker in the Chinese
mainland, announced this yesterday in a statement.
Nasdaq-listed Spansion, previously a joint venture between AMD
and Fujitsu, will transfer 65-nanometer technology to SMIC on
12-inch wafers, according to the statement. This technology will
allow the Shanghai-based SMIC to produce smaller chips with more
features at lower costs.
Neither company provided costings for the deal.
Spansion, which has a factory in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province,
currently produces about 200 million chips a year in China, of
which 150 million are exported.
The remaining 50 million are sold to handset makers in China,
including Nokia Oyj and Motorola Inc.
"SMIC has made great strides in anticipating the growing flash
memory market. With China's consumer electronics market comes the
opportunity to create and nurture the growth of various flash
memory services and markets," said Richard Chang, SMIC's president
and chief executive.
The booming domestic handset market in China will fuel the
demand for memory chips for stored programs, pictures, video and
music in phones, industry insiders said.
(Shanghai Daily October 25, 2007)
