A Japan-based company that produces a key product used in the manufacture of silicon crystals and ingots for semiconductors is closing its Camas operations, leaving dozens of mostly long-term employees without jobs.
Heraeus Shin-Etsu America, Inc., a division of the Tokyo-based company that also operates SEH America in Vancouver, will soon cease to exist as the parent company relocates its manufacturing to another facility in Japan, said Linda Rose, business manager.
She said she could offer no further comment about the corporate decision or timeline but said more details should be available following an official announcement shortly after Labor Day.
Rose said HSA-USA, as it is known, has operated in Camas since 1992 and now has “fewer than 50” employees, down from a peak of about 90 workers.
She called the remaining workers “the cream of the crop” in manufacturing and said she is working to help those workers find new employment.
The company is giving workers a two-week “separation bonus” with the plant closure, she said.
Heraeus Shin-Etsu America, 4600 N.W. Pacific Rim Blvd. in Camas, manufactures and sells quartz crucibles, or bowls, used in furnaces that are part of the production process for silicon crystals and ingots.
It sells its products to SEH America, which she described as a corporate cousin operated by a different division of the giant Shin-Etsu company, and to other wafer manufacturers.
The closure decision is not tied to any management plans for the SEH America plant, she said.
The Camas manufacturing site has been one of three operated by Heraeus Shin-Etsu, she said.
Customers are now being informed of the change, she said.
