Japan's 7.4 Magnitude Earthquake, Murata, Renesas And Other Large Factories Power Outages And Production Suspension

According to Japanese media reports, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake occurred at 23:36 on March 16 outside Fukushima, Japan. The largest earthquake in Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures reached a magnitude of 6. The earthquake caused power outages in many places in Japan. Fewer semiconductor factories face power outages for up to 3 hours before power is restored.

The Japanese government said that at least 97 people were known to be killed and at least 97 people were injured, and all walks of life were affected, including the memory manufacturer Kioxia and the MLCC manufacturer Murata, Renesas and Universal Crystal are under comprehensive inspection.

The Japan Meteorological Agency pointed out that the earthquake occurred at 23:36 local time on the 16th, with a magnitude of 7.4. The epicenter was located at a depth of 60 kilometers offshore Fukushima Prefecture. In 2011, the Fukushima Earthquake hit semiconductor factories such as Renesas, a major automotive chip maker, to shut down. The earthquake late last night also attracted the attention of the industry.

Fukushima is located in the northeastern region of Japan. SUMCO, Renesas Electronics, Kioxia, Sony, Shin-Etsu Chemical, Toshiba, Fujitsu, TI, and ON Semiconductor have production bases in the northeastern region. After the earthquake yesterday, Renesas has pointed out that it is inspecting the earthquake damage of three fabs in Japan.

Universal Jingjin announced that the earthquake in Japan caused no casualties to the Japanese subsidiary. All buildings and factory facilities were normal. There was a brief power outage. At present, the power supply has been fully restored, and the equipment is under comprehensive inspection. To resume production.

At the Kitakami plant in Iwate Prefecture, a major memory manufacturer, Kioxia, some production lines were stopped due to vibrations detected in the production equipment. There were no reports of damage to employees or buildings, and production continued.

As for Murata, a major MLCC factory, the company's four factories in northeastern Japan are shutting down. Among them, a fire broke out from the factory in Tomi City, Miyagi Prefecture, but the fire was extinguished around 2:00 midnight on the 17th, and no one was injured. The cause of the fire and the damage to the equipment are currently under investigation. The factory produces chip inductors for smartphones and automobiles. In addition, three factories in Sendai City, Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture, and Hongu City, Fukushima Prefecture have also been suspended due to the earthquake and are currently undergoing equipment confirmation.

Regarding earthquakes in Japan, there are more than a thousand earthquakes every year, among which there are 4 earthquakes with a magnitude of 3 or higher every day. This has become the norm in Japan. But earthquakes of magnitude 6 and 7 will still have a big impact.

Japan is the world's most important manufacturing location for electronic products, their components, and semiconductors. In the earthquake zone, Sendai and Fukushima are the gathering places of Japanese semiconductor manufacturers such as Toshiba, Fujitsu, Kioxia, Murata, and Renesas.

There is no doubt that the earthquake will have a certain negative impact on Japan and the global electronics industry. At present, the losses of Renesas and other major manufacturers are still being counted, and the specific impact has not yet been confirmed, but Japan is still facing a relatively big problem, that is, power outages.

According to Tohoku Electric Power, as of 9:30 am on the 17th, Japan time, there were still 25,100 households in Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures without power. According to Tokyo Electric Power Co., Ltd., about 2.1 million households in nine prefectures, including Tokyo, suffered power outages due to the emergency shutdown of multiple thermal power plants. .

If the power supply continues to be tight, it may have a deeper impact on the electronics industry.

As far as Murata and Kioxia factories and production lines are shut down, in the short term, the prices of Nand Flash and CMOS sensor products may rise to a certain extent (Western Digital and Kioxia raw material pollution boosted the price of memory a month ago) In terms of Murata, the shutdown of four factories is likely to affect the supply of passive components such as mid-to-high-end capacitors, resistors, inductors, and crystal oscillators.

However, the original factory, agents, and terminals basically have inventory to cover the bottom. If the earthquake does not cause major damage to the production line, there will be at most some price fluctuations in the short term, but the overall impact will not be large.