NEC will invest 35 billion yen (US$300.1 million) in fiscal 2001 starting this April to boost by 50 percent the production capacity at Shanghai Hua Hong NEC Electronics Co. making large-scale integrated chips used in cell phones, the company said.

The monthly capacity at the Shanghai joint venture of silicon wafers 200 millimeters in diameter will be raised by the end of this year to 30,000 from the current 20,000, it said.

NEC said it aims to respond to moves in China to increase local procurement of semiconductor chips used in cell phones, amid expansion of the mobile phone market.

The joint firm was set up by NEC Corp. and its local partner Shanghai Hua Hong (Group) Co. in 1997.