Infineon Expands in Asia - New Production Plant for Automotive and Industrial Power Technologies in Malaysia

Dec 8, 2004 | Market News

Munich, Germany – December 8, 2004 – Infineon Technologies AG (FSE/NYSE: IFX) will build a new front-end production plant in Kulim High Tech Park, Malaysia. The facility will mainly produce power and logic chips used in automotive and industrial power applications. The company announced today that it plans to invest in total approximately US-Dollar 1 billion. Groundbreaking is planned for early 2005. Ramp-up is scheduled for 2006. At full capacity, the fab will employ approximately 1,700 people.

“This new fab is an important step in continuing our successful business with chips for automotive and industrial power applications. With this move, we are systematically expanding our presence in the future market of Asia,” commented Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart, President and CEO of Infineon Technolgies. “Our continuous investment in Asia also reduces our market risk concerning fluctuations of the US dollar-to-euro exchange rate.”

The new plant complements Infineon’s already existing production sites for non-memory products in Munich-Perlach, Regensburg, Villach, and Dresden as well as Altis Semiconductors, a joint venture with IBM in Essonnes, France.

Due to strong penetration of electronics in vehicles as well as the ongoing substitution of semiconductor solutions for mechanical components, the worldwide automotive semiconductor market is expected to experience substantial growth of about ten percent over the next few years. More demanding requirements with respect to reliability, security, and weight as well as emission control and power reduction of cars, will also fuel growth.

According to the market research company Strategy Analytics (May 2004), the automotive semiconductor market amounted for about US-Dollar 13.3 billion in calendar year 2003 growing by 14.1 percent from 11.5 billion in 2002. Infineon is Europe’s number one manufacturer of automotive semiconductors with an overall sales market share of 15.0 percent. Worldwide the company ranks as number two with an overall sales market share of 8.7 percent in the year 2003, thus growing by 21.2 percent year on year.

About Infineon

Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions for the automotive and industrial sectors, for applications in the wired communications markets, secure mobile solutions as well as memory products. With a global presence, Infineon operates in the US from San Jose, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore and in Japan from Tokyo. In fiscal year 2004 (ending September), the company achieved sales of Euro 7.19 billion with about 35,600 employees worldwide. Infineon is listed on the DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX). Further information is available at www.infineon.com.

Information Number

INFXX200412.021