SanDisk Corp., the world’s largest supplier of flash storage card products, recently announced the opening of its production facility in Shanghai, China, the company’s first in the People’s Republic of China.

Based in Zizhu Industrial-based Science Park, SanDisk Semiconductor (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. (SDSS) is expected to play a critical role in SanDisk’s worldwide operations as the plant will focus on the assembly and test of its advanced flash memory products for mobile and other consumers in markets worldwide. SanDisk’s worldwide operations function will also reside at the Shanghai facility.

The new SanDisk manufacturing plant produces a flash memory-based chip package called System-in-a-Package (SiP), which is particularly valuable in mobile phones, where there is limited space due to their small size.

“Shanghai is a strategic location that is close to our supply partners and allows us to stay ahead of the curve as we seek to bring our products to market faster,” said Sanjay Mehrotra, president and chief operating officer at SanDisk. “We believe our new state-of-the-art facility will help us to meet the growing demand for storage cards as consumers increasingly use their mobile phones to view photos, listen to music as well as record and play videos.”

The new 34,000 square meter facility is a vertically integrated production operation with all test and assembly processes carried out at the plant — from receiving wafers from the company’s fabrication sources, or fabs, based in Japan to shipping complete products to customers. The production capacity of SDSS is expected to meet approximately 30 percent of SanDisk’s SiP products projected global demand.

“From Shanghai, SanDisk will lead our global drive for ever improving operational efficiency and effectiveness to further strengthen our leadership in areas of product quality, competitive cost and customer satisfaction.,” said Mehrotra. “The transformation of our supply chain is a strategic step for the next phase of growth for SanDisk.”

SanDisk is the original inventor of flash storage cards and is the world’s largest supplier of flash data storage card products, using its patented, high-density flash memory and controller technology. SanDisk is headquartered in Milpitas, Calif., and has operations worldwide, with more than half its sales outside the U.S.

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