Qimonda to shut U.S. plant, 1,500 jobs go

* To shutter Virginia plant at cost of 1,500 jobs

* Company to be liquidated if no investor found (Adds quotes, background)

FRANKFURT, Feb 3 (Reuters) – Qimonda (QMNDQ.PK) will shut its only U.S. plant with the loss of around 1,500 jobs, the insolvent German memory chip maker said on Tuesday, adding it faced liquidation if it cannot find investors with deep pockets.

Closing the plant in Sandston near the Virginia state capital of Richmond “was unavoidable to improve production efficiency and to focus on the next generation of chips” called buried wordline technology, executive board member Thomas Seifert said in a statement.

Production at other Qimonda group plants continued but the company said it had not yet decided whether operations would remain with Qimonda or be spun off into a new company.

“In the latter case or if investors cannot be found to finance the continuation of Qimonda’s companies then Qimonda AG would probably be liquidated,” it said.

Qimonda had announced last year it planned to reduce production at the Sandston plant and cut 1,200 jobs, leaving the site with a staff of around 1,500.

Qimonda filed for insolvency in January after it said a 325 million euro ($418 million) rescue attempt by its home state of Saxony, parent company Infineon (IFXGn.DE) and a group of banks had not come in time. [ID:nLN168875].

Insolvency administrator Michael Jaffe has said Qimonda — the world’s fourth-biggest maker of DRAM chips — required a strong financial investor to come up with a sustainable solution. According to a works council official the company has until the end of March to find an investor.

The company is suffering from a massive drop in prices for dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips, its main product, and shares this fate with competitors such as Elpida (6665.T) and Samsung (005930.KS). (Reporting by Nicola Leske and Michael Shields; Editing by Erica Billingham)

via Reuters

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