Micron Technology opens manufacturing plant in Xi’an, China

Steve Appleton, meet the Terracotta Warriors of Qin Shi Huang.

Idaho’s largest company today formally announced plans to spend $250 million on a new manufacturing facility in a town often called the historical center of China. Xi’an is best known for ancient statues, as well as for being the capitol for 13 different dynasties. The town, which has about six million residents, is about 3,100 years old.

(Click here to learn more about the town.)

The company hosted a ceremony today at the facility, which will be an assembly and test plant. Micron manufactures computer memory components.

According to a press release from the company, the plant will be built out in 2008, and will employ about 2,000. Micron has had marketing and sales offices in China since 2001. This is the firm’s second plant in Asia. (Click here to read more about Micron’s plant in Singapore and here to read more about the company's expansion outside of Idaho.)

Here’s the full press release from the company:

  ***

  Micron Technology, Inc., today officially opened a new manufacturing facility in Xi’an, China. The facility, Micron’s first manufacturing facility in China, is designed for assembly and test operations for Micron’s semiconductor products, including dynamic random access memory, NAND flash memory and CMOS image sensors.

  Micron hosted a ceremony at the facility with company, government and community officials on hand. The facility is expected to be built-out by the end of 2008 at an investment of $250 million and support up to 2,000 employees. The plant is Micron’s second assembly and test facility in Asia, with its first being opened in Singapore in 1998. Additionally, Micron’s Xi’an facility will be one of the largest investments of the 860 foreign-invested companies operating in the Xi’an High Tech Zone in Shaanxi Province in Midwest China.

  “At Micron, we combine application-specialized products with value-added expertise and manufacturing process leadership to help our customers compete with confidence on a global scale,” said Steve Appleton, Micron Chairman, CEO and President. “By opening this facility in Xi’an, we are enabling customers and partners to design applications with service, support and quality from Micron, and we are pleased to be a growing part of the China technology industry.”

  While the Xi’an facility is Micron’s first manufacturing plant in China, the company is no stranger to the China business community. Micron first came to China in 2001 to service its growing customer base from an office in Xiamen. In 2004, Micron established Micron Semiconductor Shanghai in Shanghai with about 60 employees and branch offices in Beijing and Shenzhen to provide corporate, sales and marketing services throughout China. That same year, Micron also chose Shanghai as the location of one of the company’s integrated circuit design centers and formed Micron Semiconductor Technology. With about 50 employees, Micron Semiconductor Technology is a key hub in Micron’s network for providing support to a variety of Asia-based mobile phone and consumer electronic device manufacturers.