Welsh semiconductor firm bought by Chinese company

A Newport factory which produces microchips has been bought by a Chinese company.

Newport Wafer Fab is an electronics firm which produces semiconductors and employs 450 people at its site in Tredegar Park.

It has been bought by Nexperia - which already has a site in Manchester.

Dr Drew Nelson, Newport Wafer Fab's outgoing chairman, said the deal was a "key part" of the industry in south Wales.

Nexperia is a Chinese owned company with headquarters in the Netherlands.

Production at the Tredegar Park area began in the 1980s when it originally made silicon chips.

It now makes silicon semiconductors and is developing into compound semiconductors, which are smaller and carry more information faster than silicon.

The site is a member of the CSconnected group of Welsh organisations, including Cardiff and Swansea Universities, which wants to make Wales a world technology leader.

In 2017, the 10 councils that make up the Cardiff Capital Region announced £38 million for a facility, or foundry, in Newport to make compound semiconductors which go into robotics, 5G and driverless cars.

The aim is to create 2,000 highly skilled jobs in five years .

Dr Nelson said the deal for the Wafer Fab site helped secure its future, and semiconductor production in Wales.