'Future of semi-conductor industry bright' even when chips are down

Singapore

EUROPEAN chipmaker STMicroelectronics, which makes nearly half of its products here, doubled its capacity for a key semiconductor product with an expanded wafer fab facility in Ang Mo Kio that opened on Tuesday.

Shrugging off a global electronics downturn that has cut factory and export numbers to the bone, chief executive Jean-Marc Chery believes the company's focus on industrial applications will keep revenues steady.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat again affirmed confidence in the prospects of the worldwide semiconductor industry - even as trade data the same morning showed electronics shipments down by double digits for the sixth month.

He noted that ST has put some US$5 billion into Singapore in the last two decades, with the latest investment "in line with its strategic perspective, because the future of the global semiconductor industry is bright,…