A power outage in one of Samsung’s South Korean factories has reportedly damaged 11 percent of the vendor’s monthly NAND output.
With NAND supply already tight, the loss has sparked fears that memory prices could be hiked. To put this in perspective s Samsung’s fabrication plant is responsible for so much of the world’s NAND flash production, the number of damaged wafers in the incident accounts for 3.5 percent of the global supply for March.
It could mean that the global supply chain could be affected over the coming weeks. Despite the power reportedly being restored after half an hour, it is thought that up to 60,000 NAND wafers were destroyed.
Samsung does have a stockpile of NAND flash chips which could offset the wafer losses, while the company and its rivals are increasing global production to make up for the shortfall. However, sources say the power outage could still influence supply and pricing in the coming weeks, but it shouldn’t take long for the market to return to normal.
