A NEWPORT microchip manufacturer could be forced to shut down – putting around 600 jobs at risk – if the UK Government blocks its sale, its owner has warned.

Last year, then-business secretary Grant Shapps blocked the sale of Newport Wafer Fab to a Chinese-owned company on national security grounds.

The company is one of the UK’s largest manufacturers of semiconductors, but there were concerns over its reported £63 million purchase by Nexperia, a company said to be linked to the Chinese Communist Party.

In July 2021, Nexperia bought a further 86 per cent of shares in Newport Wafer Fab, taking its total shareholding to 100 per cent.

Staff at the company spoke to the Argus about what they see as the “shocking, frustrating, unfathomable and invalid” decision made in Westminster to block its sale to Nexperia.

The Telegraph reports that Nexperia bosses have warned the plant could go under if plans to force its sale go ahead.

Newport Wafer Fab would lose £170 million by the end of next year, be left with only one client, and face a staff exodus that would “cripple Newport’s production capacity, threatening Newport’s viability as a feasible business”, according to legal filings at the High Court by Nexperia.

The Dutch firm, which is owned by Chinese technology business Wingtech, is taking the UK Government to court to overturn the decision, and has hired the barrister Lord Pannick KC, who advised Boris Johnson in Privileges Committee hearing over his comments on the Partygate scandal, has appeared on behalf of Shamima Begum in the Supreme Court, and will also represent Manchester City.

Nexperia argues that the products it makes are not sophisticated or a security risk.

The filing also expressed concerns about “procedural fairness” because of a lack of detailed information about the national security concerns.

There is a similar Nexperia facility near Manchester which has not been subject to such action from the UK Government.