At 16:10 pm local time on January 1, a 7.6-magnitude earthquake occurred in the central and northern parts of Japan. The epicenter was located in the Noto area of Ishikawa Prefecture. The focal depth was extremely shallow. A tsunami warning was issued for almost the entire west coast of Japan. According to the official measurement of the China Seismological Network, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake occurred off the west coast of Honshu, Japan at 15:10 Beijing time on January 1 (16:10 local time on January 1). The focal depth was 30 kilometers and the epicenter was located at 37.50 degrees north latitude and 137.20 degrees east longitude.
According to information released by the Japan Meteorological Agency, the earthquake intensity in Noto City, Ishikawa Prefecture was 7 degrees, the earthquake intensity in Chuetsu City, Niigata Prefecture was below 6 degrees, and the earthquake intensity in the eastern and western areas of Joetsu City, Joetsu City, and Sado City in Niigata Prefecture was above 5 degrees in Toyama, Kaga, Ishikawa, Rehoku, and Fukui Prefectures.
At the same time, the Japan Meteorological Agency issued a major tsunami warning for Noto City in Ishikawa Prefecture, Yamagata Prefecture, Kaminakatsuki in Niigata Prefecture, Sado City in Toyama Prefecture, Kaga City in Ishikawa Prefecture, Fukui Prefecture, and northern Hyogo Prefecture. The maximum height of the tsunami is expected to be 5 meters.
According to reports, in addition to the above-mentioned heavily affected areas, buildings in Tokyo also shook significantly during this earthquake, but there have been no reports of damage yet. A tsunami of about 1 meter high is currently hitting parts of the west coast of Japan. It is expected that there may be a larger tsunami. The local government calls on people to evacuate from dangerous areas immediately.
Subsequently, aftershocks continued, and earthquakes of magnitude 6 or above occurred continuously in the Noto area of Ishikawa Prefecture. Russia also issued tsunami warnings in the far eastern cities of Vladivostok and Nakhodka.
As of 5:30 pm local time, data showed that Japan had experienced a total of 19 earthquakes with magnitudes above 19. In addition to the main shock of magnitude 7, there were also five strong earthquakes of magnitude 5 and above.
At 18:10 local time on the 1st, the Japan Meteorological Agency held an emergency press conference, once again calling on people in tsunami warning areas to evacuate immediately, and reminding people in earthquake areas to pay attention to the possibility of another earthquake with a magnitude of around 7 in the next week, especially in the next two or three days.
Affected by the major earthquake, Japan Railway Company (JR East) suspended operations of various Shinkansen lines including Tohoku, Joetsu, and Hokuriku. It is unclear when operations will resume.
Hokuriku Electric Power Company announced that a large-scale power outage occurred in Ishikawa Prefecture where it supplies power. As of 5:30 p.m., approximately 10,300 households were without power in Wajima City, Ishikawa Prefecture, approximately 8,100 households were without power in Suzu City, and approximately 6,000 households were without power in Noto Town. A total of approximately 32,500 households in the prefecture were without power. There is no target time for power restoration. In addition, about 30 homes in Toyama Prefecture also experienced power outages. Tohoku Electric Power's homepage shows that there are about 1,500 power outages in Niigata Prefecture.
ANNNEWS reports show that the earthquake in Ishikawa Prefecture caused many houses to collapse and fires broke out.
According to the Nomi City Government, in addition to receiving reports of multiple residential collapses, it also received information about multiple mudslides. In addition, there are also reports of house collapses and mudslides in Nanao City and Nakanoto Town.
According to the Crisis Management and Disaster Prevention Section of Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture, at 7:30 pm local time on the 1st, approximately 1,300 people took refuge in 46 shelters in the city. In addition, according to the Toyama City Government, 17 shelters have been opened in the city, and as of 6 p.m., about 400 people had taken refuge.
According to Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, the runway at Noto Airport in Ishikawa Prefecture is currently closed because an inspection of the runway found a step of more than 3 centimeters. In addition, due to a tsunami warning issued at Komatsu Airport, airport employees and passengers have been evacuated to the third floor of the terminal.
Japan's nuclear regulator said it was inspecting the operations of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant and Hokuriku Electric Co.'s Shiga nuclear power plant. However, no abnormality has been found in the nuclear reactor so far. The agency claimed that the Shiga Nuclear Power Plant, which is closest to the epicenter, had shut down two reactors before the earthquake and conducted regular inspections and found no abnormal effects caused by the earthquake.
Is Japan's semiconductor supply chain affected?
It should be pointed out that Japan is a global center for semiconductor materials and semiconductor equipment, and it also has many major semiconductor chip manufacturers. Whether this earthquake will affect the global semiconductor industry remains to be seen.
According to SEMI data, Japanese companies account for about 52% of the global semiconductor materials market, while North America and Europe account for about 15% each.
Among the 19 main materials for manufacturing chips, 14 of Japan ranks first in the world, such as semiconductor silicon wafers (Shin-Etsu, Shengco), photoresists (JSR, Tokyo Onka, Fuji Materials), photomasks (DNP, Japan Toppan Printing), bonding wires, molding resins and lead frames and other important materials. It has a high share.
In terms of semiconductor equipment, according to data released by the U.S. semiconductor industry research company VLSI Research, among the top 15 global semiconductor equipment manufacturers in 2020, 7 are from Japan, namely Tokyo Electronics, Advant, SCREEN, Hitachi High-tech, Kokusai Electric, Nikon, and Daifuku. This also reflects Japan's strong advantages in the field of semiconductor equipment.
It should be pointed out that Japan's Nikon and Canon are still the top three photolithography machine suppliers in the world after ASML.
Although Japan does not have advanced process fabs in the field of logic chips (the TSMC Kumamoto plant is still under construction), Japan has about 13% of the production capacity of logic chips with process nodes above 45nm. For example, Renesas Electronics is the world's largest automotive MCU manufacturer; in the NAND Flash flash memory chip market, Japan's Kioxia occupies about 20% of the market share; in terms of analog/discrete devices, Japan's share has reached 27%. For example, Japan's Murata, Mitsubishi Electric, Toshiba, Fuji Electric, Renesas, Taiyo Yuden, etc. are all important global discrete device suppliers. Among them, Murata is the world's largest MLCC supplier, occupying about 32% of the global market share.
so,Whenever a major earthquake with high intensity occurs in Japan, it may affect local semiconductor manufacturers, triggering a global semiconductor supply chain crisis.
For example, in 2011, a major earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale occurred in Japan, with the epicenter located in the Pacific Ocean east of Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. At that time, Toshiba's microprocessor and image sensor (LSI) chip factory located in Iwate Prefecture, which was close to the epicenter of the earthquake, was affected and stopped production. Renesas's eight production facilities were also forced to stop production. In addition, Fujitsu's semiconductor factory and Motorola's semiconductor factory in Japan are also affected. Therefore, it also caused a wave of increase in the price of semiconductor chips on the market.
Then on April 14, 2016, a strong earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale occurred in Kumamoto Prefecture, Kyushu Island, Japan. Affected by the earthquake at that time, Sony once closed three CMOS factories in the earthquake area. Renesas Electronics also closed its automotive IC factory in Kumamoto. Mitsubishi Electric's power module factory and Kikuchi LCD factory in Kumamoto Koshi were forced to suspend operations. This move also caused fluctuations in the semiconductor market at that time, especially the CMOS sensor market. Many mobile phone manufacturers placed orders with Sony's competitor Samsung to rush for goods.
On the evening of March 17, 2022, a strong earthquake of magnitude 7.4 occurred in Japan. The maximum magnitude of the earthquake in Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures was above magnitude 6. At that time, many factories including Murata, Sony, Renesas, and Shin-Etsu were suspended.
Therefore, usually when a major earthquake occurs in Japan, the first reaction of people in the semiconductor industry is, will the price of chips increase again?
but,The 7.4-magnitude earthquake in Japan mainly affected cities related to the west coast of Japan, while the main focus of the Japanese semiconductor industry is located around the east coast of Japan and the Kyushu region. It is expected that the earthquake will have a relatively small impact on the Japanese semiconductor industry.
According to the data,The Japanese semiconductor industry is mainly concentrated in the Kanto and Tohoku regions of Kyushu Island and Honshu Island. Although there is currently only one semiconductor manufacturer, Rapidus, in the Hokkaido region, it is expected to form a new semiconductor gathering place in the future.
Among them, Kyushu Island has the largest concentration of Japanese semiconductor industry chain companies. Well-known semiconductor manufacturers such as Toshiba, NEC, Renesas, Sony, and Shengco have all set up factories in Kyushu.
For example, Sony has seven CMOS factories in Japan, four of which are located in Kyushu. In addition, the wafer fab is high. Semiconductor chip manufacturers Renesas, NEC and Mitsubishi Electric also have semiconductor factories in Kumamoto, Kyushu (Sony also plans to build a new CIS chip factory in Kumamoto).
Japan's Tohoku region includes the surrounding areas near Sendai and Fukushima. Renesas Electronics' Yonezawa factory and semiconductor wafer majors Shengko and Shin-Etsu also have factories in the Tohoku region.
Rapidus, a start-up advanced process wafer foundry company in Japan, is building a factory in Hokkaido.
As of press time, major Japanese semiconductor manufacturers such as Renesas Electronics, Toshiba Semiconductor, Kioxia, and Sony Semiconductor have not issued statements related to the earthquake.