Texas Instruments Postpones Phillipines Expansion

MANILA, Philippines, Oct. 26 -- Texas Instruments (TI) Philippines will delay its $100 million expansion project due to sluggish global demand and the expected negative economic effects of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York.

Speaking this week at an event organized by the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines (SEIPI), an organization of more than 500 manufacturers of electronic components and products based in the Philippines, TI Philippines Managing Director Norberto Viera said the project has been pushed back to 2003 or until "better business situations" arise.

The project, which was to have been completed before the end of this year, would have entailed expanding TI's existing manufacturing plant in the Baguio City economic zone, with the aim of increasing the semiconductor giant's production of digital signal processors (DSPs) and analog semiconductors. TI is the world's largest supplier of DSP and analog semiconductors used for mobile phones and Internet access devices. Its Philippine operations account for half of the entire company's DSP production.

Viera said TI Phillipines has had to reduce its workforce by 5 percent and initiate an early retirement program, and that it's working on keeping its remaining workers. SEIPI Director General Ernie Santiago had said previously that the country's electronics and semiconductor export revenues were expected to fall by 15 percent this year. Despite about 30 billion Philippine pesos ($576.7 million) worth of investments SEIPI members infused into the industry from January to September this year, Santiago said no signs of recovery would likely be felt until mid-2002.