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The
latest partnership is what the Japanese industry ministry has
hoped for out of concerns that the country's power chip industry
is too fragmented to catch up with industry giant Infineon
Technologies AG.
The ministry separately said it would subsidize up to 129.4
billion yen, or a third of the total investment, as part of an
effort to help the domestic power chip industry retain its
competitiveness.
Power chips efficiently control electric power in cars,
electronic devices and industry equipment. The ministry expects
the global power chip market to grow to 5 trillion yen by 2030.
Under the latest plan, Rohm will invest 289.2 billion yen in its
new plant in Miyazaki Prefecture on the southern island of
Kyushu to produce silicon carbide power chips, which have become
popular with electric car makers because they can handle high
voltages and are more efficient.
Toshiba will invest 99.1 billion yen in a cutting-edge 300mm
fabrication plant it is building in Ishikawa, central Japan, to
produce silicon power chips.
The investment is part of a plan announced last year to spend
125 billion yen to more than double power chip production.
Chips produced at the plants will be sold under their own
brands.
The collaboration comes after Rohm decided to invest 300 billion
yen to join a group led by private equity firm Japan Industrial
Partners (JIP) to take Toshiba private.
But the two companies said they had been considering the
collaboration "for some time", and Rohm's investment in the
Toshiba buyout "did not serve as the starting point" for the
latest plan.
Japanese power chip manufacturers such as Toshiba, Rohm,
Mitsubishi Electric and Fuji Electric all have a global
presence.
($1 = 143.4400 yen)
(Reporting by Miho Uranaka and Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by David
Goodman, Stephen Coates and Jamie Freed)
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