Ogaki, Japan -- Ibiden Co. plans to set up its second printed circuit board plant in Beijing at a cost of 8 billion yen to supply PCBs to major cell phone makers, company sources said.

According to a release in a local paper, the company will produce thinner PCBs to help its corporate customers build smaller phone handsets with more functions at lower cost.

The new plant, functional by next summer, will have 30,000 sq. m of floor space and be built adjacent to the firm's existing 28,000-sq.-m facility. It will have about the same output capacity as the older plant, which turns out some 60 million PCBs a year.

The second facility will make the most advanced type of PCB, called FVSS, whose flexible wiring design can help reduce the time needed for Ibiden's customers to manufacture phones.