Resumption of operations at Yokkaichi Plant and Kitakami Plant, where manufacturing processes had been suspended.
🟦 KIOXIA Flash Memory Production Plant resumes operations
KIOXIA (formerly Toshiba Memory), a major semiconductor memory company, announced that its Yokkaichi and Kitakami plants, which had been partially suspended since late January, have returned to normal operations since late February. The shutdown was caused by parts containing impurities in the production process of 3D NAND flash memory. Although shipments of “BiCS FLASH” are expected to be affected in the future, we will do our best to reduce the impact on customers.
🟦 Impact on larger production than predicted
Western Digital’s production activities in the U.S., with which we collaborate, have also been affected. We have announced that it will affect 7 exa (EXA) bytes in the third and fourth quarters of 2022. The impact was 6.5 exabytes, which was greater than previously expected. 7 exabytes is such a large percentage that it will account for 4% of total annual NAND production in 2021.
At this stage, there is no shortage until the price of SSDs rises, but there is a possibility that the supply will be delayed from around April.
🟦Summary
KIOXIA has resumed plant operations, but production cuts during the shutdown period are likely to be affected in the second half of 2022.