The prospect of extended supply disruption caused by Japan's devastating earthquake drove prices for key technology parts higher on Tuesday.
If the supply chain is broken for even a few weeks, the impact could be felt in higher prices or shortages of gadgets such as tablets, smartphones and computers for months to come.
Japan is a dominant chip industry player, with around one-fifth of the world's semiconductor production.
From component makers to electronics firms and automakers, Japanese companies are keeping plants shuttered.
Even if damage to electronic production facilities turns out to be limited, power and transport disruption could result in significant shortages of some electronic parts and lead to big price increases, research firm IHS iSuppli said.
NAND flash memory chips used in the fast-growing mobile devices market, dynamic random access memory (DRAM), microcontrollers, standard logic, liquid-crystal display (LCD) panels, and LCD parts and materials could all be affected, it said.
Spot prices of NAND flash chips again increased on Tuesday, rising nearly 3 percent after a 20 percent jump on Monday, while DRAM memory chip prices gained 0.2 percent on top of a 7 percent rise on Monday, according to price tracker DRAMeXchange.
Kingston Technology, one of world's largest suppliers of DRAM and NAND memory, said some market reaction had been "of a speculative nature," but added, "there is a valid concern about the disruption to the logistics chain of some DRAM chip manufacturers outside Japan."
"In semiconductor production a temporary stop to the lines usually means that everything that was on the lines at that moment (and a production process takes several weeks) has to be discarded as junk," Kingston said in a statement.
Even if shipments of semiconductor parts were disrupted for only two weeks, shortages and their price impact would probably linger until the third quarter, iSuppli said.
Alternatives Sought
Demand for NAND flash memory chips has been surging, led by mobile devices and tablets like Apple's iPad 2, whose sales are estimated at almost 1 million units.
"The mobile phone industry has been suffering from a component shortage. Now it seems it will be prolonged. Component prices will rise," Inderes analyst Mikael Rautanen said.
Taiwan's Wintek, which makes the touch module for the iPad 2, said it had more than two weeks of inventory left and the short-term impact was limited.
Apple Inc said on Tuesday it was delaying launch of its IPad2 tablet in Japan after the disaster, but it did not say it was due to supply problems.
If the supply chain is broken for even a few weeks, the impact could be felt in higher prices or shortages of gadgets such as tablets, smartphones and computers for months to come.
Japan is a dominant chip industry player, with around one-fifth of the world's semiconductor production.
From component makers to electronics firms and automakers, Japanese companies are keeping plants shuttered.
Even if damage to electronic production facilities turns out to be limited, power and transport disruption could result in significant shortages of some electronic parts and lead to big price increases, research firm IHS iSuppli said.
NAND flash memory chips used in the fast-growing mobile devices market, dynamic random access memory (DRAM), microcontrollers, standard logic, liquid-crystal display (LCD) panels, and LCD parts and materials could all be affected, it said.
Spot prices of NAND flash chips again increased on Tuesday, rising nearly 3 percent after a 20 percent jump on Monday, while DRAM memory chip prices gained 0.2 percent on top of a 7 percent rise on Monday, according to price tracker DRAMeXchange.
Kingston Technology, one of world's largest suppliers of DRAM and NAND memory, said some market reaction had been "of a speculative nature," but added, "there is a valid concern about the disruption to the logistics chain of some DRAM chip manufacturers outside Japan."
"In semiconductor production a temporary stop to the lines usually means that everything that was on the lines at that moment (and a production process takes several weeks) has to be discarded as junk," Kingston said in a statement.
Even if shipments of semiconductor parts were disrupted for only two weeks, shortages and their price impact would probably linger until the third quarter, iSuppli said.
Alternatives Sought
Demand for NAND flash memory chips has been surging, led by mobile devices and tablets like Apple's iPad 2, whose sales are estimated at almost 1 million units.
"The mobile phone industry has been suffering from a component shortage. Now it seems it will be prolonged. Component prices will rise," Inderes analyst Mikael Rautanen said.
Taiwan's Wintek, which makes the touch module for the iPad 2, said it had more than two weeks of inventory left and the short-term impact was limited.
Apple Inc said on Tuesday it was delaying launch of its IPad2 tablet in Japan after the disaster, but it did not say it was due to supply problems.
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