Lai Youming, Director of the Investment Department of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMI), has told local media that his company is going to receive a combined US$600 million bank loan from nine banks.

The money will come from banks both in China and abroad in June 2006 to pay off the company's short-term debt and expand its factory construction.

The nine banks to provide loans to SMIC include Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, Bank of China (Hong Kong), Communications Bank of China, Rilian Group, China Construction Bank, ABN AMRO Bank, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, DBS Bank and Fubon Bank (Hong Kong).

Lai Youming says that this bank loan will first be used to pay off its US$393 million short-term debt and the rest will be spent on expanding the construction of a factory in Beijing a factory in Shanghai.

This bank loan will be calculated as part of the company's US$1.1 billion expenditure in 2006.