Tokyo--Toshiba Corporation today announced moves to reinforce its ability to meet fast growing demand in the Chinese semiconductor market that include taking full control of a manufacturing joint venture and a move to new manufacturing facilities. The measures announced today come into effect immediately and will allow Toshiba to speed-up decision-making and meet growing demand with increased production capacity.

Toshiba will take full control of Wuxi Huazhi Semiconductor Co., Ltd. by purchasing the stake of its partner, Huajin Electronics Group Corp., one of China's leading semiconductor manufacturers. The company, established in October 1994 in Wuxi, to assemble and inspect bipolar and Bi-CMOS ICs for television and audio applications, will change its name to Toshiba Semiconductor (Wuxi) Co., Ltd. Toshiba will increase the capitalization of the company to $15 million and transfer operations to a newly developed industrial park at Wuxi, where a two-year, 5-billion yen investment program will raise capacity, currently 3 million units a month, to 30 million units a month. The new facility will also diversify into discrete devices.

Estimates for fiscal year 2001 show that China accounted for approximately 7% out of worldwide semiconductor demand, a figure projected to reach 20% in 2010. Toshiba is taking early steps to build up a manufacturing organization able to support local procurement by Chinese manufacturers and to achieve the competitiveness and flexibility necessary to meet short delivery requests. The company will also reinforce the competitiveness of its semiconductor manufacturing operation by promoting assembly of mature products in China and other Asian countries, while assembling high value-added products in Japan.

Outline of New Company