The Marlborough, Mass.-based solar technologies company said the closure will come as it ramps up its production in China. The company produces solar wafers at a company-owned plant in Wuhan, China.

Globalfoundries plans to double its capital spending to US$5.4 billion in 2011, said CFO Robert Krakauer. The money will go toward upgrading a plant in Dresden, Germany, building another in upstate New York and planning a factory in Abu Dhabi.

Intel will receive a grant from the Israeli government to build a 12-inch plant dubbed Fab 28 in Kiryat Gat. Intel promised to employ 3,100 employees at the fab and boost R&D investment.

Sony has announced plans to invest approximately 100 billion yen (US$1.2 billion) over the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, to double its production capacity for CCD and CMOS image sensors. The investment plan includes the transfer of a plant from Toshiba.

Sony plans to buy back a Nagasaki semiconductor plant from Toshiba for about 50 billion yen (US$597.2 million) to double output capacity for image sensors used in smartphones and other devices, the Nikkei business daily reported recently.

Toshiba will spend about US$1.19 billion to build a new fabrication plant to produce the panels for Apple.

Sharp will spend 15 billion yen to add a new assembly line for mass-producing highly efficient solar cells at its Sakai plant this fiscal year. The line will be able to churn out the equivalent of 200,000kw a year, driving up Sharp's total annual solar cell output capacity more than 20% to 1.07 million kilowatts.

Toshiba will shut its No.2 plant in Yokkaichi, central Japan, by the end of December and phase out low-end chips used in products such as memory sticks. The company will also farm out production of so-called logic chips next year to cut costs at a business that's "barely breaking even."

Elpida will slash production at its Hiroshima site and at the plant of Taiwanese subsidiary Rexchip Electronics and will consider postponing the construction of a plant in Taiwan, the Nikkei reported.

Another source familiar with the situation said the money would likely be used to expand capacity at the company's Beijing plant, specifically to quickly ramp-up production of chips using 65nm technology.

Intel has announced the opening of a massive US$1 billion chip testing and assembly facility in Vietnam. The factory has a total area of 46,000 square meters.

The first solar energy project on federal land has broken ground in California's Mojave Desert.

The US$2.5 billion chip factory is producing chips on 12-inch silicon wafers, mainly chipsets to be used in desktop computers, laptops and servers. The factory is already fully operational.

South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries and France's Saint-Gobain will jointly build the largest thin-film solar cell plant in South Korea.

Japan's Sanyo Electric will close two of its domestic semiconductor plants by 2012, and move production to another plant along with about 1,000 workers, according to the Nikkei business daily.

The executive also said the outlook for chip demand remains solid for the remainder of this year, but cautioned another cyclical downturn could be in store next year as industry capacity continues to increase.

Japan's Sharp is investing almost 4 billion yen (US$46 million) at a plant in Britain to double production of solar cell modules to meet growing demand across Europe.

Thin-film solar cells are optimal for use in a high-temperature climate, compared to crystalline solar cells. Sharp's experience in the mass production of thin-film solar cells has enabled Sharp to take part in this project. The thin-film solar cell modules to be used in the power generation plant will be supplied partially from Sharp's solar cell plant at Osaka Prefecture.

French nuclear giant Areva, hinted last week during a meeting in Forbes offices that Areva is developing a hybrid solar power plant concept that combines a solar thermal system with solar photovoltaic (PV) panels.

Toshiba plans to expand manufacturing capacity at its plant in Houston, Texas for production of high-performance drive motors for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs).

ASIF chairman Javier Anta said the government proposed limiting the hours of output for which a solar plant could receive subsidies, instead of cutting the subsidies for plants themselves.

STMicroelectronics said it plans to hire more workers to expand one of its two plants in China, defying higher operating costs as the government orders companies to increase employee pay.

Toyota Motor halted production at a car plant in Guangzhou, China, after one of its suppliers was shut down by a strike.

An Abu Dhabi state-owned company on Wednesday announced plans for the biggest single solar power plant in the world, as the emirate tries to diversify energy supplies from oil.

Samsung Electronics has said due to projected heavy demand for its advanced logic chips, it will invest US$3.6 billion to expand capacity at its plant in Austin, Texas, and hire 500 more workers there by 2011.

Texas Instruments said it is ramping up a second phase of expansion at a factory near its Dallas headquarters. The expansion will double the plant's capacity to produce chips that go into products such as cell phones, computers and telecommunications equipment.

Mitsubishi Motors Corp.'s battery- making venture with GS Yuasa Corp. is considering producing lithium-ion cells in Europe as demand in the region for electric cars grows.

A company that bought the former Qimonda plant for a bargain price has announced plans to retrofit the 1.36 million-square-foot facility to host data centers.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) has been talking to Texas Instruments (TI) about taking over operation of the government-owned factory, according to company sources. It was not immediately clear whether TI was interested in only taking over management of the facility, or in buying it as well.