Intel Israel exports jump in '07; Fab 28 to open in H2

By Joseph Nasr

TEL AVIV, Feb 26 (Reuters) - U.S. chip maker Intel Corp (INTC.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Tuesday its Israeli subsidiary posted an 18.4 percent growth in exports in 2007 to $1.54 billion.

"Intel Israel continues to grow, which will translate into a big drive to recruit workers in a variety of technological fields," Maxine Fassberg, general manager of Intel Israel, said at a news conference.

Fassberg, also a vice president at Intel Corp., said the world's largest chipmaker did not expect the slowdown in the U.S. economy to hurt its business worldwide. She did not elaborate further.

"Intel is a global company that does not only sell to the U.S. market, and therefore ... we don't expect this (slowdown) to impact our worldwide operations in general," she said.

Intel has been operating in Israel for more than 30 years and is the largest foreign company in Israel, with a number of chip plants and research and development centres.

It is currently building its $5 billion Fab 28 chip plant in the southern Israeli town of Kiryat Gat, which will begin production in the second half of 2008, Fassberg said.

Fab 28, being built alongside its existing Fab 18, will be Intel's second factory capable of making processors with circuitry just 45 nanometers wide, the next step in shrinking chips from the 65 nanometer processor that is state of the art for the industry today.

Fab 28, will replace Fab 8, Intel's long-standing plant in Jerusalem and the first ever built outside the U.S., which will stop production in March 2008. Fab 8 will be transformed into a die preparation plant where wafers are protected from handling-induced defects before packaging, Intel said.