Hyundai Electronics Industries Co Ltd is joining the stampede of off-shore chip manufacturers to Oregon, announcing plans to invest $1,300m between now and the end of 1998 in building a new semiconductor fabrica-tion plan in Eugene. The Seoul company, which bought NCR Microelectronics from AT&T Corp earlier this year, says the plant will have capacity to process 30,000 8 wafers a month and will initially make 16M-bit and 64M-bit memory chips. The US was chosen for the company’s first major overseas plant because the market is the largest in the world and also has the most advanced chip-making technology. Hyundai will raise funds for the plant in the US by floating industrial revenue bonds. Hyundai currently operates two semiconductor fabrication plants in South Korea,with another due for completion by the end of the year, when they will have a combined capacity to process 55,000 8 wafers a month; Hyundai sees $3,450m in semiconductor sales this year, an 111.6% rise on 1994.
