Flash-memory gap for rivals
An accidental power cut halted six of Samsung’s NAND-flash production lines last Friday before Samsung restarted them 21 hours later. Samsung estimated that its losses could total more than $54m.
NAND-flash is used for making cellphones, portal media, iPods and iPhones.
Analysts estimated that the opportunity cost could be as high as $108m to $217m.
The affected lines represented more than half of the Samsung’s total NAND-flash output.
The production cut is forecast to tip the scale in favour of suppliers by removing some of the Samsung’s NAND-producing capacity.
“The accident would lead Samsung to produce around 80% of what it had previously planned in the quarter ahead,” said Kim Byung-Gi, an analyst with Kium Securities in Seoul. “This will certainly be a good news for its peers, Hynix and Toshiba,” he said.
Samsung accounts for 43,9% of the NAND-flash memory market share, with Toshiba and Hynix ranking second and third, according to second-quarter data from DRAM clearinghouse DRAMeXchange.
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