According to TrendForce reports, yesterday, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake occurred in the waters near Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, with a focal depth of 50 kilometers. Miyagi and Iwate prefectures were affected by the earthquake, but the earthquake did not trigger a tsunami.

The report pointed out that Kitakami City, Iwate Prefecture, where the K1 fab of memory chip maker Kioxia (formerly Toshiba Memory Corporation) is located, was also affected by the earthquake. K1 fab has stopped production for inspection and is expected to suffer limited impact. In addition, since K1 fab's production capacity is only about 5K per month, it accounts for a very low proportion of the overall market. Even if production capacity is interrupted, the impact on the market will be limited. As for Micron's DRAM factory in Hiroshima, it was not affected by the earthquake due to the long distance.

The NAND Flash production factories jointly established by Kioxia and Western Digital are basically located in Japan. In addition to the K1 fab in Iwate Prefecture, there are Fab2, Fab3, Fab4, Fab5 and Fab6 in Yokkaichi, Japan. In addition, a new Fab7 factory will be planned in 2020.

According to public information, the K1 fab was completed in October 2019. The initial construction investment was 7 billion yen, covering an area of about 150,000 square meters. This year, the total investment including equipment is expected to be as high as 1 trillion yen. It is currently the largest of all the company's factories.