India has approved the setting up of semiconductor wafer plants by two consortia, including IBM Corp, Israel's TowerJazz and STMicroelectronics NV, costing a total of 634.1 billion rupees ($10.17 billion). India, which wants local production of chips to cut long-term import bills, has renewed a drive to attract investments after a previous attempt failed. The two groups had proposed building plants in India in September.One of the consortia is made up of India's Jaiprakash Associates Ltd and TowerJazz and IBM. It plans to set up a plant near New Delhi at a cost of 343.99 billion rupees ($5.52 billion), a government statement said on Friday.The second comprises HSMC Technologies India Private Ltd, Malaysia's Silterra and STMicroelectronics. The group has proposed investment of 290.13 billion rupees ($4.65 billion) for a plant in the western Gujarat state, the statement said.The final agreements for the two plants are expected to be signed by August.
STMicroelectronics NV is a global independent semiconductor company that designs, develops, manufactures and markets a range of semiconductor products used in a variety of microelectronic applications, including automotive products, computer peripherals, telecommunications systems, consumer products, industrial automation and control systems. Shares of STM traded higher by 0.36% or $0.03/share to $8.36. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $7.11 and as high as $10.05. On average, 745539 shares of STM exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 466663.
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