Affected by steep declines in the prices of memory chips, Korean chip maker Hynix announced on July 24 that, starting immediately, it will discontinue production at its US memory chip plant in Eugene, Oregon, the Korea Times reported.

Owing to the migration of market demand towards 12-inch memory chips, Hynix's US plant - which was inaugurated in 1998 and designed for the production eight-inch memory chips - will be shut down completely by the end of September 2008, according to the same report. In addition, the company is also considering selling off the facility and equipment. After closing the US plant, Hynix has four eight-inch memory chip lines left, three in Korea and one at its Wuxi plant in China.