Japan earthquake, these semiconductor factories have an emergency shutdown

Latest update time：2024-01-03

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Source : Content comes from Industrial and Commercial Times , thank you.

According to TrendForce's survey of the impact area of the strong earthquake in the Noto area of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, the surrounding areas include MLCC factory TAIYO YUDEN, silicon wafer (raw wafer) factory Shin-Etsu, GlobalWafers, semiconductor factory Toshiba and TPSCo jointly operated by Tower and Nuvoton and other related factories are located in Earthquake zone.

Since the current semiconductor industry is still in a downward cycle and has entered the off-season, some components are still in stock. In addition, most factories fall into seismic intensity levels 4 to 5, which are within the factory's earthquake-resistant design range.

According to TrendForce's current survey, most factories' initial inspection machines have not been seriously damaged, and the impact is judged to be controllable.

In terms of silicon wafer fabs, both Shin-Etsu and GlobalWafers' fabs in Niigata are shut down for inspection. Among the raw wafer manufacturing processes, crystal growth is the most taboo against earthquake shaking, but most of Shin-Etsu's crystal growth fabs are located in the Fukushima area. , the impact of this earthquake was limited, and SUMCO was not affected.

In terms of semiconductor factories, the Toshiba Kaga factory is located in the southwest of Ishikawa Prefecture. It has a 6-inch and 8-inch factory, and a 12-inch factory that will be completed in the first half of 2024; as well as Tower and Nuvoton ( The three factories of TPSCo, a joint venture between Panasonic and Panasonic, located in Uozu, Tonami and Arai, are all shut down for inspection. USJC (United Microelectronics acquired the Mie Fujitsu plant in 2019) has not been affected.

In terms of MLCC, TAIYO YUDEN's Niigata factory is a brand-new factory that can withstand earthquakes up to level 7, and the equipment is currently not affected. The earthquake intensity at Murata (which only produces MLCC) and TDK's MLCC factories was below level 4 and was not significantly affected.

However, Murata has three factories (Komatsu, Kanazawa and Toyama (non-MLCC production)) in the earthquake intensity 5+ area. Since the factory is shut down during the New Year holiday, existing personnel are going to inspect the damage. .

It can be seen from Japanese media reports that chip material manufacturer Kokusai Electric stated that it plans to resume operations on January 4. Some damage was discovered at the Toyama factory and is currently under further investigation.

Wafer fab Global Crystal said that there are no problems with the Niigata factory buildings, factory facilities and most of the equipment. Only a small part of the equipment that is sensitive to earthquakes will suffer some damage to a limited extent.

Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd., the world's largest MLCC manufacturer, said that many factories are located in the earthquake area, including Kanazawa Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (SAW Filter) and Komatsu Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (WiFi, Bluetooth modules), and the damage to the facilities is being confirmed. Condition.

Semiconductor equipment manufacturer KOKUSAI ELECTRIC stated that there was no report of damage to the Toyama Prefecture base and we are confirming it internally.

Toshiba said the situation at the 12-inch power semiconductor plant in Ishikawa Prefecture is being confirmed.

Nuvoton Technology stated that the company’s production plants in Toyama Prefecture, Hokuriku, Japan, including the front-end wafer fab TPSCo, a joint venture with Tower, and Nuvoton’s back-end packaging and testing plant, were opened in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, on the afternoon of January 1, 2024, local time. After a magnitude 7.6 earthquake occurred at 4:10, emergency safety procedures were immediately initiated. Nuvoton pointed out that it has confirmed that all employees, offices and factory buildings are safe; the factory facilities and equipment are being comprehensively inspected, and the recovery time is also being evaluated.

The legal person pointed out that TPSCo, the wafer foundry jointly owned by Nuvoton and Taota, is close to the epicenter of the earthquake, Ishikawa Prefecture. It mainly supplies local customers in Japan and has limited impact on businesses mainly in Taiwan and Greater China.

TPSCo, a subsidiary of Nuvoton's Japanese subsidiary NTCJ, is a joint venture with Israel's Tower Semiconductor. Tower and Nuvoton each hold 51% and 49% of the shares, and its operations are led by Tower. It owns two 8-inch factories. , a 12-unit factory located in Toyama and Niigata Prefectures, close to Ishikawa Prefecture, the epicenter of the earthquake. In the past period of time, TPSCo has continued to plan the merger of Japanese production capacity, reducing the equipment of 8-inch factories that do not have an economic scale, and expanding the factory to 12-inch factories, mainly for special processes and battery management IC production capacity expansion, mainly supplying local customers in Japan.

It can be seen that the situation of many chip companies is not fully understood. In fact, this is not because Japanese companies are inefficient, but because the earthquake occurred during the New Year holiday, many companies and factories were resting, and the impact of the earthquake cannot be first understood. Time to follow up.

In general, this 7.4-magnitude earthquake mainly affected cities related to the west coast of Japan, while the main focus of Japan's semiconductor industry is around the east coast of Japan and the Kyushu region. It is expected that this earthquake will have a relatively small impact on Japan's semiconductor industry. .

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