OREANDA-NEWS. Panasonic Corporation announced that in response to increasingly intense competition in the semiconductor market and changes in the business environment, it decided today to carry out the following structural reforms of the semiconductor business of Automotive & Industrial Systems Company (AIS), an internal company of Panasonic, in order to strengthen the competitiveness of the business and achieve new growth.

Panasonic has carried out a variety of measures for its semiconductor business, including the structural transformation of the business, such as shifting its focus from the AV market to the automotive and industrial market, and developing products and solutions taking advantage of its low power consumption, image processing and compound technologies. Panasonic is aiming to further improve the competitiveness of its semiconductor business through the implementation of the following measures.

The 8-inch and 12-inch semiconductor wafer manufacturing processes carried out at the Hokuriku Factory (Uozu, Tonami and Arai) will be transferred on April 1, 2014, to a new company to be established by Panasonic. The new company will receive investment from Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (TJ), a semiconductor foundry based in Israel, and become a joint venture.

In addition to carrying out the production of the semiconductor wafer manufacturing process as a subcontractor of Panasonic, the new company is aiming to expand operations by utilizing TJ's customers and businesses to capture out-of-group sales.

The employees engaged in business at the Hokuriku Factory will be assigned positions in the new company or within the Panasonic Group.