Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Japan Tech Shortage: Who’s Affected?

As Japan digs out from its worst earthquake and tsunami in recent history, and engineers scramble to contain the damage at the Fukushima nuclear plant, another crisis is unfolding behind the scenes: massive disruption to the global supply chain.
As relatively unimportant as it may seem, Japan’s factories are the lifeline for electronics companies the world over. Some 20% of all semiconductors and 40% of all flash memory chips sold in the world’s smartphones, tablets, cameras and computers are made in Japan. Manufacturers are facing a drastic reduction in supply, which could have significant knock-on effects in earnings, employment — and the global economy as a whole.
So which companies and products are most at risk? Here’s what we know so far:

Toshiba makes NAND Flash memory chips used in the iPhone, iPad and a string of tablets launching this year. Prices of the 32GB NAND chip jumped nearly 20% in component markets Monday. Toshiba says it is examining damage to its plant, and has no date set for reopening. Toshiba President Norio Sasaki has more important things on his mind at the moment: Prime Minister Naoto Kan has ordered him to help with efforts to stop radiation leaking from the Fukushima plant, according to reports.

Most affected products: The iPad 2 and similar tablets.

Sony, the nation’s largest consumer electronics exporter, shut down six factories last week and another two this week. One of those factories took a direct hit from the tsunami. The plants are all involved in making Blu-ray discs, magnetic heads, PlayStation 3s and lithium-ion batteries. The company makes about 10% of the world’s laptop batteries. The factories are likely to remain shut for at least the next two weeks.

Most affected products: Blu-ray DVDs, PlayStations, PC laptops.

Texas Instruments lost two of its plants making wafers and DLP chips. A spokesperson told Reuters it would take until July for them to come back online.

Most affected products: DLP TVs, video projectors.

Hitachi has six manufacturing facilities in the quake-struck north of Japan, all of them now closed, all of them now being inspected.

Most affected products: Plasma TVs, LCD TVs, camcorders and DVD players.

[via mashable]

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