Hynix set to close its Oregon plant, cutting 1,100 jobs

It may have once talked about toppling both Intel and AMD within a decade, but South Korea's Hynix looks to have been knocked back on its heels a bit amid a general downturn in the DRAM market, and it's now taken the rather drastic step of closing down its plan in Eugene, Oregon, eliminating some 1,100 jobs in the process. As EE Times points out, that move is at least partly due to the fact that 300mm plants are ramping up faster than expected, making 200mm plans like the one in Oregon far less cost effective to operate and, apparently, too expensive to upgrade. There's also the little matter of some tariffs the United States had imposed on Hynix, which it was able to avoid thanks to its plant in Oregon, but which now appear to be set to expire. For its part, Hynix denies that has anything to do with the plant closing, and it adds that it is still looking at ways to "have a presence" in Eugene.

[Via The Wall Street Journal]

[cantcount @ Jul 24th 2008 10:49AM]

I'm always torn between the responsibility of a corporation to ensure it's survival, and the mass termination of employees who have families to provide for. I guess a company's gotta do what a company's gotta do.

[teej @ Jul 24th 2008 1:06PM]

yeah, it's totally unfortunate, but that's just how it is. it supremely sucks, however, when it's a plant located in a small town. pretty much exactly like the movie Gungho w/ Michael Keaton but without the happy ending :-\

[schmitty338 @ Jul 24th 2008 10:54AM]

Those poor Eugenians....

[Turtle @ Jul 24th 2008 11:06AM]

The 512M SODIMMs I just pulled out of my wife's MacBook were Hynix. Hmmm...

[Casper42 @ Jul 24th 2008 2:49PM]

HP OEMs Hynix for a ton of their Server Memory as well.

Cant see why they would be hurting so much right now unless HP and other big names are selling less computers as well.

[JeffM @ Jul 24th 2008 11:34AM]

That should help out the real estate prices in Eugene a bit- not a city with much high tech, but a great place to live.

[TRAFFICBLOWS @ Jul 24th 2008 12:15PM]

Oh yeah, sure... def on my top 10!

[Nathaniel @ Jul 24th 2008 5:30PM]

Maybe if you enjoy being surrounded by people with no sense of decency, personal hygiene or fashion sense (socks with sandals, and tie-dye shirts should not be everyday wear). Not to mention they're too high to do anything productive other than voting against any measure that may improve the city because the noise may disturb some birds. All the while forming impromptu drum circles campaigning for free speech while simultaneously destroying any person's sense of peace and quiet with less rhythm than a toddler banging a wooden spoon on his mom's pots and pans. Call me bitter but after only two years there, I'm getting really sick of it. (of course none of this is to offend those posting on here from Eugene, especially those working -- you're already above the majority based on that fact alone -- I'm just speaking in generalities, as most rants do) GO DUCKS, but grow up Eugene.

[Conor Kirkpatrick @ Jul 24th 2008 6:00PM]

I go to Eugene some times (I'm from Salem) and it is a great place :P



hmm, strange, isn't HP close (ish) to Eugene? (Or in it?!)

[Captain Obvious @ Jul 24th 2008 11:47AM]

I live in the area, and 1100 jobs here is a huge number of people. Just today, another employer announced another 50 positions being cut in wood industries. I think the recession just hit home.

[Abuzar Baloach @ Jul 24th 2008 12:37PM]

It's been hitting home for a while now...

[johnzilla @ Jul 24th 2008 3:08PM]

Welcome to the recession. You're about 4 years behind Michigan.

[Shabbis @ Jul 24th 2008 12:04PM]

GO DUCKS!!!

[phlavor @ Jul 24th 2008 1:27PM]

I blame their awful logo.

[DJZeratul @ Jul 24th 2008 2:42PM]

Does anybody proofread anymore?

[Samboini @ Jul 24th 2008 3:42PM]

Of course, every time I buy spirits. If it ain't over 100% proof it doesn't get bought!

[Jeff @ Jul 24th 2008 3:45PM]

looks like I'll be going back to school surrounded by upset euginains.

I don't understand why this company is getting hit so hard, the majority of the memory the HP servers I have worked with, and micron desktops have been loaded with this stuff.

[Elliott @ Jul 24th 2008 5:18PM]

That sucks and has gotta be hard on a college town like Eugene. Best quality of life, but not a lot of industry.

[dbishop @ Jul 24th 2008 6:07PM]

Many of us humble Eugenians were never thrilled when Hyundai then Hynix (aka Hyjinks) landed here. Ten years ago Hyundai's CEO had a vision that the plant would be located on a hill above a pristine (and delicate) riparian area. Of course, our city government fell all over themselves accommodating "sustainable" manufacturing. The plant went up, failed, retooled, and now has failed again. We have lots of water so I suspect the riparian area will recover. Hynix denying that poor planning and failed practices have anything to do with the closure? More Hyjinks!

[dj @ Jul 25th 2008 2:38PM]

obviuosly you know nothing about the semiconductor industry.

1st, it did not fail once before, it retooled. that's waht you have to do int this industry. technology advances so fast that you have to upgrade equipment continuously.

2nd, it only failed now because the city of eugene put huge restrictions on the building of the other 2 fabs that were to be on the same sight. having more than one fab allows the flexibility of upgrading one while the others still produce. then the fabs can be upgraded in cycles. even the city is now realizing that mistake.

[Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu @ Jul 25th 2008 9:14AM]

Spelling error: not plan but plant.

[former hynix employee @ Jul 26th 2008 2:52AM]

DJ hit the nail on the head, I spent 10 yrs working for Hyundai/Hynix and no it didn't fail it is the nature of the industry, I seen this coming two years ago and made my exit. I feel for all my previous co-workers and what they will be facing. Eugene is a great town but it has its backward thinking politicians and a bunch of tree huggers that impede progress. Being a liberal democrat I felt pretty conservative when I lived in that town.

[former hynix employee @ Jul 26th 2008 2:53AM]

DJ hit the nail on the head, I spent 10 yrs working for Hyundai/Hynix
and no it didn't fail it is the nature of the industry, I seen this
coming two years ago and made my exit. I feel for all my previous
co-workers and what they will be facing. Eugene is a great town but
it has its backward thinking politicians and a bunch of tree huggers
that impede progress. Being a liberal democrat I felt pretty
conservative when I lived in that town.

[Alex Brewer @ Jul 27th 2008 5:38AM]

My grandfather visited the Korean sister city of Eugene as part of an envoy with the mayor at the time of the plant construction and was given a great tours of the Hyundai Electronics facilities, along with lots of swag. The plant cost over 1 billion dollars to build a decade ago. Hmm, closing alreayd?

[Bryce @ Jul 27th 2008 7:22PM]

I work/worked for the Eugene plant..

Everyone knew this was going to happen soon enough.. When they started shutting tools down at a pretty fast rate is when I started looking for a new job, and actually (thank god!) got one and am currently holding 2 jobs including the Hynix position.

Its very sad, I know of many people at this location that I work with that just had their first born, just got their first home, car payments, families ect. and in this location its VERY hard to get a decent paying job with decent health insurance that these people NEED in order to survive.

The next two months are going to be very interesting, and Ill be curious when they decide to give me my call to the admin building to speak with my supervisor, were I'll get a hand shake and a pat on the back followed by "good luck"...

[Kaptain Kopter @ Jul 28th 2008 3:54PM]

Seen it before. Never a good thing when 1000+ people are put to the street. Hynix was Eugene's biggest employer, but not even close to the best. One of the poorest run companies in the business IMO. Seems I've heard similar things about Samsung's US plant, maybe related the cultural differences? The true test will be how they (Hynix) support (treat) the employees for severance, continuation of insurance, retraining, etc., Maybe this will be a wakeup call for Eugene city goverment to get serious about bringing jobs to the area. Geez, there aren't enough jobs at WalMart for everybody.