Phison expects NAND flash memory shortage to begin in mid-May
Kioxia and Western Digital’s NAND factories in Yokkaichi and Kitakami, Japan were affected by material pollution incidents.
Production has been suspended since late January, and it did not resume normal operations until the end of February, which means that production has been suspended for nearly a month, which is to have an impact on the supply of flash memory. Many analysts agree that the supply issues will be felt by the industry in the second quarter of 2022.
According to Digitimes, Phison CEO KS Pua said that the global NAND supply crunch will start to become apparent in mid-May and continue until the end of June. Phison’s business may not be disrupted by NAND supply constraints, but other companies with less inventory may be more passive in this summer’s peak sales season and adversely affect their business.
Kioxia and Western Digital are one of the main suppliers of NAND flash memory. Of course, the manufacturers that can produce NAND flash memory are not only Kioxia and Western Digital, but also Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix. All of them can alleviate the impact of this production accident to a certain extent by increasing their production capacity. By the end of 2022, the overall output of NAND flash memory may increase by 40% to 50% compared with 2021.
