Seoul - The South Korean semiconductor manufacturer Hynix plans to close a factory in the US state of Oregon by the end of September because of a steep decline in the price of memory chips, the company said Thursday.

More than 1,200 jobs would be affected at the 10-year-old factory in Eugene, company spokeswoman Park Seong Ae said.

The world's second-largest memory-chip manufacturer after South Korea's Samsung Electronics is moving away from production of older 200-millimetre wafers made in Eugene and toward newer 300-millimetre wafers.

The company said it might continue to use the factory or sell the equipment, building and land to another semiconductor maker. (dpa)