AUSTIN, Texas-Due to irreparable damages incurred from the recent 9.0 magnitude earthquake on March 11, officials from Freescale Semiconductor confirmed the closing of its wafer fabrication plant in Sendai, Japan.
After a lengthy assessment of equipment and infrastructure damage and measuring safety concerns with available resources in and around Sendai, the company concluded that the Freescale plant wouldn’t be able to return to operations in wafer fabrication in a timely manner and will instead shift efforts to other plants.
The Sendai facility manufactured sensors products, microcontrollers and analog integrated circuits.
“The ongoing safety concerns, damage to infrastructure and other basic services in the region, compounded by numerous major aftershocks, prohibit Freescale from returning the facility to an operational level required for wafer fab production in a reasonable timeframe,” Freescale said in a statement by company representatives.
The plant was slated for retirement in December 2011, but will put 600 workers out of work early. Rich Beyer, CEO of Freescale, stated that employees would remain with their salaries for “an extended period of time,” and receive severance packages.
The announcement comes several weeks after Freescale evacuated employees immediately following the quake and tsunami.
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