Elpida Memory, Japan's only maker of DRAM, has provided its business status in the wake of the massive earthquake that hit the country, saying that information remains incomplete, and it is still assessing the impact of the quake.
The Hiroshima Plant suffered little impact because it is located in Hiroshima in the southwest of Japan, far from the northeastern regions struck by the earthquake, Elpida said. As of the morning of March 12, the plant was operating normally without any need to scrap wafers due to seismic effects.
Elpida's chip assembling and testing plant in Akita-shi, Akita, was not in operation as of the time of Elpida's announcement today (March 14) due to power outages caused by the earthquake. The company said as soon as electricity comes back on, normal business operations can be resumed. There is no damage to the manufacturing equipment, the company added.
Elpida also revealed that the company is working to communicate with its material suppliers, but available information is currently insufficient. Elpida said it will continue to gather and analyze all information from suppliers.
Regarding logistics and distribution, Elpida expects normal operations to resume today.
In other news, Japan-based Shin-Etsu Chemical, a major wafer silicon supplier to Elpida, has issued a statement saying that as of 9 am, March 12 (Japan time), the company stopped operations at its production sites in Annaka (Gunma prefecture), Kamisu (Ibaraki prefecture) and Nishigo Village (Fukushima prefecture) due to the impact of the earthquake such as power outages. Shin-Etsu has not yet decided when the operations can restart.