Kawasaki to build second fab

Japananse industrial combine Kawasaki Steel is to expand its chip-making operations with the construction of a $100 million fab that it intends will commence production in 2001. The plant, to be built alongside the company's current fab will be dedicated to ASIC production for telecommunications and consumer electronics devices. Network-oriented ASICs will form the fab's mainstay -- Kawasaki expects demand for these products to increase dramatically during 1999 and 2000. It hopes this will counter the continuing decline of other semiconductor products, such as DRAM. The company has said it expects its current fiscal year, ending next March, to show a 15 per cent decline in semiconductor sales. ®