Toshiba plant to process 80,000 wafers/mth H2 '08

YOKKAICHI, Japan, Sep 4 (Reuters) Toshiba Corp, the world's second-biggest maker of NAND flash memory, said on Tuesday it expects its newest microchip plant to process 80,000 wafers a month in July-December, as it hurries to catch up to Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

The Japanese electronics maker had previously said its No.4 NAND plant in western Japan would have a production capacity of 60,000 300-mm wafers per month by June next year.

''This plant brings the No.1 slot in market share within reach,'' Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida said during the opening ceremony of the plant, built with partner and flash memory storage card maker California-based SanDisk Corp The plant goes online in December.

Toshiba held 27.5 percent of the global NAND market in April-June, trailing Samsung's 45.9 percent, according to U.S.

research firm iSuppli.

Toshiba aims for a 40 percent global market share.

NAND-type flash memory is widely used for data storage in portable electronics like Apple Inc's iPod digital media player devices.

REUTERS SR ND1214