ST Micro pulls plug on three chip plants
Six inches just ain't enough these days
ST Microelectronics is shuttering three chip plants as part of its effort to ditch aging 6 inch wafer factories and other old production lines.
The Swiss-based chip maker is closing its 6 inch wafer fab in Carrollton, Texas, an 8 inch fab in Phoenix Arizona, and a packaging and test plant in Ain Sebaa, Morocco. It has already shifted most of its 6 inch production to Singapore.
The Phoenix plant is relatively small, ST Micro said, and the firm can’t be bothered upgrading into the 21st century, meaning its capacity will be shifted to other plants, or contractors. The same applies to the Ain Sebaa plant, with the firm upgrading its Bouskoura plant instead.
STM said the changes would affect 4,000 employees, most of which will be offered transfers or “transition-based incentives”.
On the plus – for STM anyway – the rationalization will save the company around $150m per year.®
COMMENTS
Rationalization? Don't you mean...
... layoffs? You don't have to regurgitate the humbug that the spinmeisters slathered on to the press release to try to hide the fact that real live human beings are being affected. Just say it the way they play it -- they're laying off a s--t-load of people in order to raise the bottom line.
Reminds me of when a major international corporation bought the little company I was employed at. Their slogan was, "Creating value through people." Their actions said that they created value [profitability] through firing people. Yep, they got me in the fourth wave of "creating value".
