(updated)
By LOOI SUE-CHERN
GEORGE TOWN: US chipmaker Intel Corporation is planning to close two its existing assembly test facilities in Bayan Lepas, Penang, but said the more than 1,000 affected employees would not be laid off.
In a statement released Thursday from its Santa Clara, California office, the company said the plans were part of the company’s move to restructure some of its manufacturing operations and align its manufacturing capacity to current market conditions.
When contacted, Intel Corp’s corporate affairs manager in Penang Loo Cheng Cheng said the two affected facilities, the PG6 and PG7 plants, where manufacturing takes place, were the company’s older and smaller plants.
“We have a total of six plants in Malaysia running manufacturing, research and development and other services.
“With three plants in Penang and another three in Kulim, Kedah, Intel Corp in Malaysia has about 10,000 employees,” she said.
Loo said the closure of the two plants in Penang would affect over 1,000 of employees but the company would be offering the effected workers comparable job positions in its other Malaysian plants.
“It is safe to say that the company has no plans to lay off any workers for now,” she said.
However, it is still unknown when the two facilities will stop its operations in Penang.
Following the move to close the two plants here, the company’s operations in its Kulim Hi-Tech Park site will assume the role as Intel’s global manufacturing hub.
When asked to comment on the relocation to Kulim, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the state government appreciated that no jobs would be lost due to the plant closures.
“Although Kulim and Penang are usually seen as one, we are still unhappy with the relocation.
“We cannot blame Intel but the question is why efforts were not made to set up operations in Bukit Minyak on mainland Penang, which is closer to the island than Kulim,” he said.
Apart from the two test facilities in Penang, Intel will also close one plant in Cavite in the Philippines and will halt production at a water fabrication facility in Hillsboro, Oregon in the United States.
