Hynix increases Eugene output.Byline: From Register-Guard and news service reports South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor Inc. has been quietly ratcheting up output at its Eugene memory-chip plant to avoid paying import tariffs An import tariff or import duty is a schedule of duties imposed by a country on imported goods. It is paid at a border or port of entry to the relevant government to allow a good to pass into that government's territory. imposed by the European Union European Union (EU), name given since the ratification (Nov., 1993) of the Treaty of European Union, or Maastricht Treaty, to the European Community and the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , a Hynix spokesman in Korea said Thursday. Hynix has been boosting productivity and output at the Eugene plant, and will continue to do so, up to the maximum capacity of the current plant, said Jung Soo Kim, a Hynix Semiconductor spokesman in Korea. The Eugene plant - Hynix's only one in the United States - now has 1,100 employees, up from 950 employees as of late September. Hynix plans to maintain that employment level, Kim said. The EU and United States imposed duties on Hynix several years ago to counter South Korean government subsidies. The European duty, imposed for five years in 2003, stemmed from a complaint by Germany's Infineon Technologies For the raceway, see . Infineon Technologies AG (ISIN: DE0006231004, FWB: IFX, NYSE: IFX) was founded in April 1999 when the semiconductor operations of parent company, Siemens AG, were spun off to form a separate legal entity. AG, Europe's largest semiconductor maker. Hynix is the world's second-largest memory-chip maker. On Thursday, the EU imposed tighter restrictions on Hynix's memory chips to ensure that the import tariffs are paid, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Bloomberg News. The EU will apply the 34.8 percent anti-subsidy duty to memory boards that contain Hynix chips and are declared as being from countries other than South Korea. ``Special provisions are needed in order to ensure that the countervailing duty Noun 1. countervailing duty - a duty imposed to offset subsidies by foreign governments tariff, duty - a government tax on imports or exports; "they signed a treaty to lower duties on trade between their countries" is levied,'' the 25-nation EU said in a decision to be published soon in the Official Journal. The revised regulations ``won't have any impact on our business because we no longer make any of the products that relate to the revisions,'' said Hynix spokesman Park Hyun. When the EU imposed the duty in 2003, it didn't specify that memory boards of dynamic random access memory Dynamic random access memory (DRAM) is a type of random access memory that stores each bit of data in a separate capacitor within an integrated circuit. Since real capacitors leak charge, the information eventually fades unless the capacitor charge is refreshed periodically. chips, known as DRAM - the main memory used in personal computers - were subject to the measure. Hynix has avoided about $236 million in annual EU duties because of the imprecise im·pre·cise adj. Not precise. im  pre·cise ly adv. EU regulation, said Michael Schuette, a partner in
Brussels with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, who represents Infineon.
Under the new rules, the EU will apply the duty according to the number of Hynix chips on the modules. DRAM modules typically have about 10 DRAM chips. Hynix escaped the duties by exporting modules with some South Korean chips and the remainder being from other countries, Schuette said. |
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