Intel to close Costa Rica plant to cut 1500 jobs

Intel spokeswoman Chack Mulloy Chuck Mulloy said in Tuesday that the company would close its assembly and testing plant in Costa Rica and cut 1500 employees, according to a news report from Sina Science and technology Beijing time April 9. Intel is now facing a slump in the PC market. The plant has made a significant contribution to Costa Rica's export trade, and the closure of the plant was part of a plan announced earlier this year by Intel. Intel said it would take measures to cut spending because it was trying to expand its business and move from the PC market to the mobile market. Mulloy said the Costa Rica plant "will be shut down and integrated into other operations of our company on a global scale". In the next two quarters, Intel will transfer assembly and test work from the Heredia plant to existing plants in China, Malaysia and Vietnam, he said. The Heredia factory has been operating since 1997 to the present. Even after shutting down the Costa Rican plant, Intel will still have more than 1000 engineers and human resources staff in the country, and will continue to carry out some research and development work. Mulloy said Intel is expected to add 200 "high-value jobs" in Costa Rica later this year. Intel dominates the PC chip industry, but has been slow to act in the smartphone and tablet chip sectors. At present, the latter market is dominated by Qualcomm and Samsung. Intel announced in January this year that it would cut around 5% of its global workforce of 107,000 this year. Intel also said at the time that the company would remain closed for the foreseeable future by investing 5 billion of billions of dollars in its new factory in Arizona, State Chandler (Chandler), which was scheduled to start producing the most advanced Intel chips by the end of 2013; Intel will upgrade at Chandler's other factories. (Tangfeng)