The future of LG Semicon’s Newport, Wales chip fabrication plant is up in the air as the UK arm awaits the outcome of merger wranglings currently dogging its South Korean parent company (CI No 3,567). A spokesperson for LG said that the external construction of the plant had nearly been completed but that the building still needed to be fitted out. Sources close to the firm say the internal fitting out of the unit could take up to a year.The spokesperson said that it was impossible to divorce the Wales plant from what was happening in the rest of the company, describing the current situation as one of wait and see. The merger problems are the latest in a string of problems for the UK chip plant which was delayed by six months last year amid rumors of financial problems (CI No 3,390), although LG denied this at the time.
