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TOKYO, June 9 (Reuters) Fujitsu Ltd. said on Friday it has no plan at the moment to seek development or production alliances with other microchip makers, despite a growing trend in Japan's semiconductor industry towards joining forces.

''Our job is to work closely with 20 or so customers for 90-nanometre chips and to ensure a swift return on our investments,'' President Hiroaki Kurokawa told a news conference.

''If something favourable for Fujitsu comes around, we might think about it. But now we need to stand up straight on our own feet and walk by ourselves.'' Fujitsu runs a plant that processes the more cost-efficient 300-mm silicon wafers for system chips with a circuitry width of 90 nanometres, and plans to invest 120 billion yen ($1 billion) to build a new plant on the same site in western Japan's Mie prefecture.

A nanometre is one billionth of a metre. Finer circuitry helps reduce the size of the chip and cuts per-unit production costs. It also helps chips process data faster. But development and production costs have grown rapidly as chipmakers move to narrower circuitry.

In an effort to share those hefty costs and pool technological expertise, Sony Corp., Toshiba Corp. and NEC Electronics Corp. agreed in February to co-develop microchips with a circuitry width of 45 nanometres.

Renesas Technology Chief Executive Satoru Ito said on Thursday Renesas will likely cooperate with Panasonic maker Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. in developing 45-nanometre chips.

Hitachi Ltd., Toshiba and Renesas in January set up a planning company to look at the feasibility of starting an independent microchip foundry, although media reports have said the three are expected to scrap the plan.

Separately, Kurokawa said Fujitsu has not heard from the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) on whether it would have to pay compensation to the bourse after a glitch in an upgraded trading system supplied by Fujitsu closed down share trading on the TSE for most of Nov. 1, the bourse's worst disruption ever.

The exchange has blamed missing instructions from Fujitsu for the problem.

Shares in Fujitsu closed up 0.9 percent at 768 yen, outperforming the Tokyo stock market's electrical machinery index IELEC, which rose 0.67 percent.

($1=113.88 Yen) REUTERS CS HS1323

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