Taiwan Chip Maker ProMOS to Lay Off 1,360 Employees

Taiwan's debt-ridden memory chip maker ProMOS Technologies plans to lay off 1,360 employees, or 80 percent of its total workforce, officials said Wednesday.

The decision is part of a court-approved restructuring plan forced on the company by its creditors, according to the Central Taiwan Science Park, where some of the company's facilities are located.

The people laid off by ProMOS, which has accumulated Tw$57 billion ($1.95 billion) in debts, will include 1,200 employed at the science park beginning October 19, park administrators said in a statement.

The company operates a plant producing 12-inch chip wafers in the science park in the city of Taichung.

"The layoff is in line with efforts to restructure the company," company spokeswoman Sofia Wong told AFP. She declined to comment on the figure of 1,360 layoffs reported by the science park.

A district court in the northern county of Hsinchu, where the company is headquartered, on Tuesday approved the restructuring plan proposed by its major creditors Taiwan Cooperative Bank and Bank of Taiwan.

Local media said the company plans to sell off the 12-inch plant and become an integrated circuit design house. The global memory chip industry is hit hard by a supply glut that has driven chip prices well below their manufacturing costs.

The company, which had 1,700 employees prior to the lay-offs, posted a loss of Tw$19.6 billion last year.