Tech giant Samsung Electronics is gearing up to fully operate a production line for 3D NAND flash memory at its plant in Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi Province. Considering the one-month period to build the equipment and tools, it is expected that the facility will likely be in full operation around the end of 2016.

Toshiba and US partner Western Digital will commit 1.5 trillion yen or US$14.6 billion over three years toward stepping up flash memory production at their jointly run Japanese plant, in a bid to widen global market share, Nikkei reported.

Tech giant Samsung Electronics said a power supply disruption at its China memory chip plant will have minimal market impact, with full-scale operations expected to resume in a few days.

Operations at Samsung Electronics' semiconductor plant in China were disrupted on Saturday following a blast at a local power station.

Sino King Technology, set up by Yukio Sakamoto, will be a key part of a roughly JPY800 billion (US$7 billion) project by the Chinese city of Hefei to build a plant to churn out cutting-edge semiconductors.

Samsung Electronics Display is ceasing the operations of its TV manufacturing plant in Seremban due to challenging business environment and changing market conditions.

SK Hynix plans to invest up to KRW15.5 trillion (US$12.5 billion) to build a new memory chip plant next to its Cheongju facility in North Chungcheong Province.

Panasonic will cut 50 jobs in April at a factory that makes solar ingots in Oregon amid slowing demand for photovoltaic panels in Japan.

Intel's move comes as the chip industry undergoes a wave of consolidation and China steps up efforts to build local technology manufacturing capacity.

Micron Technology is spending over 100 billion yen ($830 million) to enable its Japanese facility in Hiroshima to mass-produce the next generation of memory chips in an attempt to take on global leader Samsung Electronics.

Foxconn has said it is aiming to develop 10-12 facilities in India, including factories and data centers, by 2020, but had given no detail.

The world's most expensive semiconductor fabrication plant - at over US$14 billion - was announced at the ground breaking ceremony Thursday (May 7) by Samsung. Located in the Godeok Industrial Complex at Pyeongtaek City Gyeonggi-do Province - called "Samsung Semiconductor Valley" - in South Korea, Samsung will be building 10-nanometer FinFET semiconductors there.

Samsung Electronics is set to spend at least another 10 trillion won (US$9.2 billion) to boost capacity at a new South Korean chip plant, a 64% increase over announced investment plans, domestic online news service MoneyToday reported.

Toshiba will decide during the next business year from April on where to build an additional memory chip plant and will consider overseas locations for the facility, according to company CEO Hisao Tanaka.

Intel said it would invest up to US$1.6 billion over the next 15 years in its chip plant in Chengdu, China, as the company continues to expand its operations in the country.

Samsung Electronics Co said a memory chip plant being built in China will start operations as planned in the first half of 2014 and the company will remain flexible about further investment in the factory.

Intel said it will delay opening a new factory in Arizona amid a slump in demand for PC microprocessors, its main source of revenue.

An explosion and fire at a Mitsubishi Materials chemical plant in central Japan on Thursday afternoon killed five people and injured at least 12 others, Yokkaichi police said.

A plant of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) was ordered to shut down Friday by the Kaohsiung Environmental Protection Bureau for multiple violations of regulations governing the discharge of industrial wastewater.

Electronics firm Sony is considering the purchase of a Japanese chip plant from Renesas Electronics so that it can enhance production of smartphone image sensors, reports said.

Intel will take over a plant in Israel's Kiryat Gat city after it was shut down by the US microchip manufacturer Micron in a bid to save 800 jobs, it was announced Sunday.

Samsung Electronics has begun commissioning equipment orders for its newly constructed semiconductor plant in Xian, China.

SK Hynix Inc said on Wednesday it had suspended operations at its China plant, which produces around 12% of global computer memory chips, because of a fire.

Japan's Renesas Electronics said Friday it will close a plant that makes system LSI chips for Nintendo's game consoles and other consumer electronics after failing to find a buyer for the facility in Tsuruoka in northern Japan.

TSMC recently held a job fair in upstate New York, helping to drive up expectations that the chipmaker is planning to open a chip fabrication plant in the area to build mobile processors for Apple.

Panasonic will close a solar panel manufacturing plant in Hungary to consolidate production in Malaysia and Japan.

The plant may be built in Tomakomai city, Hokkaido, Miyuki Nakayama, a Sharp spokeswoman, said by phone today.

The new plant will take approximately two years to build, and it will create 3,500 construction jobs, as well as 800 full-time jobs inside the plant once its complete.

Samsung plans to invest US$1.7 billion in expanding and fitting out its operations in Kunshan, a fast-growing manufacturing hub west of Shanghai, the Xinhua news agency said on Sunday.

Globalfoundries has been awarded a US$1 billion loan from the Export-Import Bank of the US to ship American-made computer chip-making tools to its operation in Germany.

Some local residents and council representatives showed up December 26 at a meeting to protest against Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s plan to build its first 450mm wafer fab plant at the Central Taiwan Science Park.

If Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is planning on building a chip plant in the United States, the only place that would make sense is Malta, New York, an analyst said.

Nokia Siemens Networks, the wireless network joint venture of Nokia and Siemens, Thursday confirmed it will be closing a plant in Germany as part of a broader program to cut costs and jobs.

Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Investment (ATIC) expects to earn its first profit by 2015 as it scales up operations overseas, but plans to set up a chip manufacturing facility at home remain on hold, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

Toshiba said Tuesday that it swung into a net loss in the fiscal first quarter as restructuring costs and the high yen outweighed profit growth from its conventional power plant business.