Significant impact of strong earthquake will be reflected in the next quarter

iSuppli believes that in the next two weeks, infrastructure problems will cause Japan to slow or interrupt shipments. However, for the electronic components affected by the Japan earthquake, the global supply chain has about two weeks of excess inventory. Therefore, it is not expected that there will be a supply shortage before the end of March or early April. Similarly, shortages and their impact on prices may continue into the third quarter.

Prior to the strong earthquake in Japan, semiconductor inventories in the global semiconductor supply chain were at a high level. The earthquake in Japan will delay the emergence of the shortage for several weeks.

LenJelinek, chief analyst of chip manufacturing at market research firm iSuppli, said that the substantial impact of the earthquake on the global chip supply chain will be reflected in the next quarter.

Jim Handy, an analyst at chip market research firm ObjectiveAnalysis, believes that the earthquake will cause dramatic fluctuations in global chip prices, causing a significant shortage of chip supply in the near future.

According to statistics, in 2010 Japan’s chip company’s revenue was approximately US$63.3 billion, accounting for approximately 20.8% of the global semiconductor market. In addition to memory chips, Freescale’s microcontroller chip makers in Sendai are close to the epicenter, which has a greater impact on production; Fujitsu's plant in Iwate Prefecture is also expected to have a certain impact; Toshiba's production of CMOS chips is in addition to memory. Affected; Sony shuts down six factories that mainly manufacture Blu-ray discs and players, lasers, and lithium-ion batteries and semiconductor products. Affected by the overall production and market sentiment, it is expected that prices of other chips may also rise in the short term.

Gao Xiaoqiang, research manager of Tiebo Industrial Research Institute, said on the 12th: “Many of the raw materials and key components used in domestic electronic information products are mainly imported from Japan. If the production of Japanese related manufacturers is seriously damaged or the road and other transportation conditions are difficult to reach in the short term, Recovery will create tensions."

The earthquake has caused severe impact on the digital cameras, digital video cameras and related core components industries in Japan. The price of digital cameras and video cameras on the mainland market may rise sharply due to insufficient supply, and digital cameras and video camera manufacturers in the mainland will also suffer from cores such as CCDs. Insufficient supply of components and production difficulties.