Posted on Wednesday, April 20 2011 @ 22:24 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
Industry sources
revealed to DigiTimes that Toshiba has cut its NAND flash memory output by 50 percent in May and June because the company is suffering from a lack of blank wafers and other raw materials due to the Japanese earthquake disaster.
Toshiba's factory site for NAND chip production has suffered little direct impact because it is located away from the earthquake-hit northeastern regions. However, as its suppliers of upstream parts and materials are based in the disaster areas, Toshiba has to scale down its NAND-chip production in the next couple of months, the sources said.
But surprisingly, faced with Toshiba's upcoming production cutback, system OEM and module vendors do not see chip shortages over the near term, the sources indicated.
Toshiba's downstream clients may have already secured most of the chips they needed before the March 11 earthquake, and therefore do not feel supply constraints at present, the sources said. However, their calm attitude toward Toshiba's reduced supply could also imply that demand for smartphones and other consumer electronics products has not been as strong as expected, the sources noted.
