Elpida
Memory president Yukio Sakamoto said the company plans to set up factories in
China and Taiwan to meet demand and cut tax expenses, Bloomberg reported on June
7, 2010. It is expected that Elpida will spend US$1.8 billion to accelerate the
construction of a second manufacturing plant at its Taiwanese unit, Rexchip
Electronics, according to a June 8 report by Taiwan's Commercial Times. Elpida
is also scheduled to build its first DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory)
factory in China in collaboration with an unspecified Taiwanese chipmaker by
2012 at the earliest.
With
the establishment of new factories, Elpida expects to meet the increasing
demand for high-performance DRAM, according to the Bloomberg report. Sakamoto
also believed that China will surpass Japan as the world's second-largest
economy in 2010. It is deemed beneficial for Elpida to begin manufacturing in
China to avoid tariffs and exchange rate fluctuations. Hynix Semiconductor and
Samsung Electronics have both increased their spending budgets for 2010 as
well, and it is believed that their moves have contributed to Elpida's present
construction plan.