The world's third-largest memory chip maker, Hynix Semiconductor Inc, has denied reports that it is ready to sell one of its chip memory lines to a Chinese company based in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang Province.
It said it was still in talks with one or two Chinese companies.
A South Korean newspaper reported on Friday that Hynix signed a memorandum of understanding with a Chinese firm to sell one of its 64-megabit Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) chip lines.
"I have never heard about anything about the deal from our Seoul headquarters," said one executive with Hynix Semiconductor Hong Kong Ltd, which is in charge of Hynix operations in China.
An executive with Hangzhou's biggest integrated circuit (IC) designer, Silan Microelectronics Co Ltd, also said memory chip manufacturing required a high technological level and a large amount of money -- two assets no firm in Hangzhou could provide in cooperation with Hynix.
Even so, Hynix has been talking with a couple of Chinese companies about establishing a memory chip joint venture, according to the Hynix executive, who refused to be identified.
"It's more likely that we will cooperate with our Chinese partners in the form of a joint business with Hynix contributing its technologies and equipment," he said. "China has been very attractive to Hynix with its huge market and low labour costs."
He said the Beijing-based steel giant Shougang Group is one possibility since it is already building IC projects.
The South Korean firm is reportedly saddled with a debt of US$6.7 billion and is eager to sell some of its plants to get back in the black.
(China Daily December 25, 2001)
