At 15:10 on January 1, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake occurred off the west coast of Honshu, Japan, with a focal depth of 30 kilometers and triggered a 5-meter-high tsunami, affecting Niigata, Toyama and other places in Japan. Since then, aftershocks have continued, and earthquakes of magnitude 6 or above have occurred continuously in the Noto area of Ishikawa Prefecture. The possibility of an earthquake of around magnitude 7 cannot be ruled out in the next two or three days.
According to Japanese media,The earthquake has killed at least 48 people in the Noto area, caused multiple ongoing fires, and caused the collapse of hundreds of buildings.
After the earthquake, the Japanese government quickly ordered the evacuation of nine counties on the west coast of Honshu Island. As of the evening of the 1st, more than 9.7 people had been moved to safe areas.
Because Japanese companies occupy an important position in semiconductor chips, materials, and processes. For example, 14 of the 19 main materials used in manufacturing chips rank first in the world. Therefore, whether the earthquake will have an impact on the semiconductor industry has also attracted much attention from industry insiders.
Chip material manufacturer Kokusai Electric said it plans to resume operations on January 4. Some damage was discovered at the Toyama plant and is currently under further investigation.
Wafer foundry Global Wafer said there are no problems with the Niigata factory buildings, factory facilities and most of the equipment.Only a small number of earthquake-sensitive equipment will suffer some damage, to a limited extent.
Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd., the world's largest MLCC manufacturer, said that several factories are located in the earthquake area, including Kanazawa Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (SAWFilter) and Komatsu Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (WiFi, Bluetooth modules), and the damage to the facilities is being confirmed.
Semiconductor equipment manufacturer KOKUSAIELECTRIC stated that there was no report of damage to the Toyama Prefecture base and we are confirming it internally.
Toshiba said the situation at the 12-inch power semiconductor plant in Ishikawa Prefecture is being confirmed.
Nuvoton Technology said the impact is being taken into account.
It can be seen that the situation of many chip companies is not fully understood. In fact, this is not because Japanese companies are inefficient, but becauseThe earthquake occurred during the New Year holiday, and many companies and factories were closed, so the impact of the earthquake could not be followed immediately.
In general, this 7.4-magnitude earthquake mainly affected cities related to the west coast of Japan, while the main focus of the Japanese semiconductor industry is 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.