Fujitsu and Shinko Electric Industries have announced a reorganisation of Fujitsu's semiconductor testing and assembly operation in Ireland.

Shinko Electric has assumed a majority stake in the operation of Fujitsu Microelectronics Ireland (FME), and under its review of Fujitsu's global semiconductor operations it will move activities away from commodity-type DRAM production.

Shinko Electric, a leading integrated circuit subcontractor and manufacturer, says it will take advantage of the highly skilled workforce already in place to introduce logic subcontracting work in Ireland.

Shinko Electric obtained a 51 per cent equity shareholding in FME at the end of November, and renamed the operation Shinko Microelectronics Ireland Limited (SMIL). Fujitsu holds the remaining 49 per cent of SMIL shares. The companies say the change will not affect the current staff level of 237.