Dell eyes Czech Rep or Poland for new plant: paper

PRAGUE (Reuters) - Dell, the world's largest personal computer maker, wants to build a new factory in either the Czech Republic or neighbouring Poland, a Czech newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Citing a source close to talks, the leading business daily Hospodarske Noviny wrote that the Czechs had about a 50 percent chance of winning the investment in the plant, which would manufacture Dell computers for Europe.

CzechInvest, the state-run agency charged with promoting foreign investment in the new European Union member country, would not comment on the report, an agency spokeswoman said.

Earlier this month, the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza said, without citing sources, that Dell could open a 120 million euro (US$144.7 million) computer assembly plant that would employ 3,000 people in the central city of Lodz.

Poland's officials later said no decision had been taken.

Last month, Dell chief executive Kevin Rollins had said the company would announce within months a new manufacturing site in Europe.

He did not say where the new factory would be, but said Dell preferred to make computers near important sales markets, rather than pick locations solely based on cost.

Dell aims to grow in Europe, where it has a 13 percent share of the personal computer market compared with its 32 percent share of the US market.