Western Digital, one of the largest disc manufacturers in the world, has left Toshiba and continues to produce on the joint NAND factory for more than 20 years together with Kioxia, which continues to work as a subsidiary. is doing. The long-running production line is in big trouble these days.
Western Digital: “The problem will reduce production by 6.5 exabytes”
A few of the NAND factories where the two companies have been producing for a long time are dealing with problems. Contamination problems in the facilities will hit the production line heavily. According to estimates, the production of up to 6.5 exabytes of flash memory is expected to be disrupted due to pollution at the Kokkaichi and Kiakami factories.
According to Kioxia, the issue will hit the production line of 3D BiCS flash used in a wide variety of SSDs and other products. The company, which worked hard to fix the situation, did not give full details about the size of the problem. Kioxia included the following sentences in the statement.
Some operations have been affected at our Yokkaichi Plant and Kitakami Plant since the end of January. The reason is assumed to be a component of the “BiCS FLASH TM” 3D flash memory that contains impurities from a particular manufacturing process. Currently, we aim to take precautions and return to normal work early in this process. The shipment of 2D NAND flash memory produced by our company is not expected to be affected.
The problem will increase NAND prices
Market research company TrendForce has released a new report after the contamination. According to the report, this disruption to the production line will increase NAND flash pricing. It is estimated that there will be an increase of 5 to 10 percent in the second quarter of this year.
Research before the issue also predicted that the NAND flash market would see a slight oversupply throughout the year. While the prices are expected to follow a downward graph, an increase is expected throughout the year after the problem experienced.
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