Strong earthquake in Japan shuts NEC (DRAM)fabs temporarily
By Jack Robertson
Electronic Buyers' News
(10/06/00, 02:02:23 PM EDT)
TOKYO -- NEC Corp. today said it has temporarily closed its Hiroshima, Japan, fabs to check for any impact caused by an earthquake registering 7.3 on the Richter scale with its epicenter in the same prefecture as the plant.
An NEC spokesman said preliminary investigation showed nostructural damage to the fab or equipment. The firm wants to make a close inspection of all gas lines and clean room environment before allowing workers to return, he said.
Hiroshima is one of NEC's major production complexes for DRAMs and other memory chips. It wasn't clear when the DRAM fabs would resume production. Based on preliminary assessments, chip analysts believed the earthquake-caused closure would have negligible impact on global DRAM supplies, which have been in ample supply in recent weeks.
The strong quake in Japan revived memories of the equally-severe Taiwan tremors in September 1999 that shut down the vast Hsinchu semiconductor production complex for two to three weeks, mainly due to loss of power. That quake caused some disruption in the chip and motherboard market, but Taiwan companies recovered quickly to restore output back to normal levels within a month.
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Earthquake rocks LCD facilities in Japan
By Yoshiko Hara
EE Times
(10/06/00, 09:58:28 AM EDT)
NARA, Japan - An earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale struck western Japan on Friday (Oct. 6) and interrupted the LCD production operations of Fujitsu Ltd. and Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. located near the quake's epicenter.
The epicenter of the earthquake was in the west of the Tottori Prefecture, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Yonago, where the Yonago Fujitsu LCD production base is located.
The magnitude of the quake in the city of Yonago measured over 5.0 on the seismic scale, and Yonago Fujitsu stopped its operations to check for damage.
The check is ongoing and the results have not been reported as yet, a Fujitsu spokeswoman said Friday evening in Japan.
Fujitsu makes mainly 15-inch, 12-inch and 8.4-inch LCDs at the facility, which has a monthly capacity of 33,000 substrates measuring 405 x 515 mm in size.
Meanwhile, Sanyo also ceased operations at its LCD production base in Tottori , about 90 km (56 miles)from the center of the earthquake. But the quake's intensity was less that 4.0 in Tottori.
Sanyo conducted a safety check, detected no problems, and resumed operations on Friday, a Sanyo spokeswoman said. TottoriSanyo has a production capacity of 200,000 panels (20-inch equivalent) a month.
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