BYD has massive expansion plans for 2010 and would consider building a plant in the US, the company said a day after announcing annual profits had tripled. The automaker will put aside 10 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) this year to grow its business.

A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 jolted northern Japan on Sunday, shaking buildings in the capital Tokyo some 240km (150 miles) away. Fujitsu has said operations at its semiconductor plant in Fukushima prefecture, northeast Japan, were not affected by the quake.

First Solar has announced a power purchase agreement to supply Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) with renewable electricity from a 300 megawatt utility-scale photovoltaic solar power facility that First Solar is developing in Southern California.

Japan-based Mitsubishi Electric has announced it plans to almost triple production of solar cells in two years to meet demand for renewable energy. The company last month finished construction of a 24,000 square meter (258,000 square feet) plant in northern Japan that may begin operating this fall.

Formosa Plastics Group, one of Taiwan's largest industrial conglomerates, has announed it plans a stainless steel plant in Vietnam, with local media citing a budget of over US$3 billion.

Toshiba will spend 800 billion yen (US$8.9 billion) to build a new microchip plant, reviving plans that it had put on hold amid sluggish sales, according to the Nikkei business daily. It may start construction of the new factory for NAND flash memory chips as early as this summer, aiming to begin operations in spring 2011.

MoneyToday, citing unnamed industry sources, said that Samsung was expected to set this year's capital expenditure for the semiconductor business at about 7 trillion won (US$6.1 billion). The Korean vendor is also planning a new chip production line in its domestic plant, marking the first time in years that it would add a line.

Toshiba may invest 200 billion yen (US$2.2 billion) to expand production of NAND flash memory by about 40% in April 2010, the Nikkan Kogyo newspaper reported without citing anyone.

Intel is now completing its first chip-fabrication plant in China; it will lag the technology used by other factories by two years, but the factory will still affect local know-how.

With an investment of up to US$1.2 billion, 500 full-time jobs, and more than 800 construction jobs, Hemlock Semiconductor's new facility will increase polycrystalline silicon production to meet the needs of the growing solar industry.

Suntech Power has announced that its first US manufacturing plant for the growing North American market would be located in the Greater Phoenix, Arizona area. The plant will have an initial production capacity of 30 megawatts (MW) and is expected to begin production in the third quarter of 2010.

Uni-chem has signed a MOU to buy Hynix's memory chip plant and the accompanying land in Eugene, Oregon, for US$50 million. It plans to use the plant to make solar cells as part of the company's new business.

An international solar-related company is in talks with Hynix Semiconductor to buy the South Korea-based company's shuttered computer-chip plant in west Eugene, according to local government and economic development officials.

"In the US, energy policy is made on the state level," CEO Mike Ahearn said. "Every state has a different approach." In contrast, Ahearn said China has designated a region within the country for renewable energy production and transmission.

Seagate Technology said it will close its Singapore hard-disk-drive manufacturing plant by the end of 2010 and lay off 2,000 workers as a result.

The Chinese solar company is now choosing among four sites for its first, 100-megawatt factory to build solar panels in the US, says an executive.

Intel is interested in building another chip manufacturing plant in southern Israel by 2012 at a cost of US$2.5 billion, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported on Monday.

Sharp has announced that its 10th-generation LCD plant is currently under construction in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture and will be operational in October 2009.

Japan's Sharp said it would start output at its new 380 billion yen ($3.8 billion) LCD panel plant in western Japan in October.