Western Digital, one of the world’s largest disc manufacturers, continues to produce on the joint NAND factory for more than 20 years with Kioxia, which left Toshiba and continues to work as a subsidiary. The long-running production line is in big trouble these days.
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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 problem 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 Factory and Kitakami Factory since the end of January. Your reason is, “BiCS FLASH TM “3D flash memory is assumed to be a component 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 published 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 prior to the issue had 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.