Qimonda AG, a major employer in Henrico County that just announced job cuts, is planning a new solar cell manufacturing plant in Portugal.

Bloomberg News reported this morning that Qimonda has signed a contract with Centrosolar Group AG, a German maker of solar cells, to jointly build, equip and operate a solar cell manufacturing plant on an existing Qimonda site in Vila do Conde, Portugal.

Qimonda will hold a 51 percent stake in the venture, which will involve an initial investment of $108 million by September 2009, Bloomberg said.

The move comes less than two weeks after the Munich, Germany-based Qimonda, a memory-chip manufacturer, announced plans to cut 10 percent of its employees worldwide as part of a comprehensive cost-reduction program.

Qimonda's only North American manufacturing plant is in eastern Henrico County, where Qimonda employed the equivalent of 2,500 people as of Jan. 1.

Company spokesman Glen Haley said no decision has been made as to where, what jobs and how many jobs Qimonda will cut from its 13,500 global work force at five factories and six major research and development centers.

Workers at the company's Sandston plant produce memory chips for computers and other electronics on 200and 300-millimeter silicon wafers.