NAND Flash Supply Drops 4％ in 2Q11

Published:2011/4/26 1:05:00 Author:Amy From:SeekIC

The earthquake that occurred in Japan on March 11 is supposed to be the reason of decreasing the worldwide capacity of NAND flash memory bits by less than 4 percent in the second quarter of 2011 and capacity should rebound to normal thereafter, according to the DRAMexchange service provided by TrendForce Corp.

According to analysis, Toshiba-SanDisk joint venture owned, the Yokkaichi wafer fabs has recovered production Friday (March 18) and expected that the supply of 300-mm diameter raw wafers would resume before Toshiba runs out of inventory.

The contract prices for NAND flash usually decline in the second quarter from the observation of DRAMexchange and it also argued that the prices will drop again after a mid-March spike though at a slightly slower rate than in preceding years.

The panic purchase that appeared after the news of the earthquake resulted in a 5 to 15 percent jump in the average selling price for contract prices for NAND flash, said the firms.

Many suppliers were in the worst affected area and even where damage is minimal rolling power black outs are a concern as these stop the resumption of suppliers’ firms. Of particular concern, the Shirakawa plant of Shin-Etsu Chemical who is the major supplier of 300-mm diameter wafers.

DRAMexchange said in a note that it is common for NAND makers to maintain 6 to 8 weeks for wafer inventory. It indicates that if the Shirakawa plant can be up and running within one month, the manufacturing of NAND ICs will not be affected.

The location of Yokkaichi NAND wafer fabs is 500 miles from the epicenter of the earthquake and so that there were only mild shocks of magnitude 2 to 3 suffered from earthquake, according to DRAMexchange.

It is said that production has back to normal on March 18. However, some work in progress was damaged and the total shipment of Toshiba/SanDisk was estimated to decrease by 10 percent in the first half of the second quarter of 2011. This equates to a reduction in the global NAND flash bit supply of less than 4 percent in the second quarter of 2011. The related integrated circuit is LA1826.

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