The ante is rising all the time for new chip plants, and where a year ago, $1,000m was the going rate to build and equip a complete new plant, Siemens AG will be investing $1,450m in its new plant in Wallsend, Tyne & Wear, creating 1,000 jobs initially, rising to as many as 2,000. At full capacity, annual output will be $1,360m to $1,440m. The new plant, location of which underlines that German social costs are now so high that even the former East Germany is no longer competitive, represents one of the biggest investments ever in the UK by an overseas company. Apart from Dresden, where running the plant round the clock seven days a week would have been problematic, other beaten contenders were Austria, Portugal and Ireland. The factory will come on stream in 1996-97, making chips for mobile telephones, mobile radio and multimedia. The UK put up only ú30m in grants, much less than was offered by some of the losers. Fujitsu makes memory chips in nearby Newton Aycliffe, Durham.
