Sumco Phoenix Corporation is to close its silicon wafer manufacturing plant in Maineville, Ohio, USA due to the weaker than expected demand and semiconductor industry’s move to larger wafer sizes. The Ohio plant also makes solar silicon ingots, which will also be affected by the closure. Consolidating its operations, Sumco said that production would shift to its other plants in the U.S. and overseas.
“This was a very hard, yet necessary conclusion to reach for the continued survival of our business,” commented Shigetoshi Shibuya, SUMCO Phoenix Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer. “The employees at Maineville have tried valiantly for some time to make this work, and we are extremely grateful to them; however, our operations there have been severely impacted by both the unexpected nosedive of the global economy and changes within the industry itself over the past year.”
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Approximately 360 workers will be affected by the closure, which is expected to be completed by June, 2010. Sumco had bought the plant in 1989. It has no current plans to sell the plant or surrounding real estate, the company said.