The shutdown is set for May 31. All equipment will be relocated to one of its 10 other facilities. The 36 employees are being given severance packages and job search assistance. According to a company statement, customer deliveries will not be affected.
DuPont Photomask will incur a one-time pre-tax charge ranging from $8 million to $10 million, which equates a per diluted charge hit of 29 cents to 37 cents, in this fourth quarter.
Under the restructuring, each manufacturing facility is being reviewed and realigned to heighten productivity, Peter Kirlin, chairman and CEO, says in a prepared statement. "Our Hamilton facility was designed to service what was projected to be a rapidly growing semiconductor market in the United Kingdom. Since opening the facility in 1997, several of our customers' plans for new semiconductor fabs have been pushed out, delayed or cancelled." He adds that the UK's photomask market is less than 10% of the European region, triggering a channeling of services to three large facilities in France and Germany.
DuPont supplies photomasks to the international semiconductor industry from 12 locations in North America, Europe and Asia. In fiscal 2000, it had about $328 million in international sales.
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