Hitachi to cease chip production

The Japanese firm said the semiconductor industry has seen an "increasingly horizontal division of labour in terms of development, design and manufacturing in recent years. The same holds true for Hitachi, which has pushed ahead with the external outsourcing of production of certain products alongside efforts to curb manufacturing costs and boost production efficiency in a bid to maintain and enhance business competitiveness."

The company plans to terminate and outsource externally the manufacture of semiconductor integrated circuits, which is presently held under the Micro Device Division.

"The intent of this move is to optimally allocate management resources to bolster the competitiveness of the entire information and telecommunication systems business," the company said in its statement.