News Toshiba NAND fab shuts down for checks amid rising SSD pricing – Japan’s earthquake affects PC component manufacturing

[Admin]

The New Year earthquake in Japan could have consequences for PC component supplies. Toshiba announced it had closed a NAND facility while safety assessments are being completed.

Toshiba NAND fab shuts down for checks amid rising SSD pricing – Japan’s earthquake affects PC component manufacturing : Read more

 

[Giroro]

We've been through this all before.
If not a convenient earthquake, or a fire, we'd be getting weekly stories about random "blackouts" and "water shortages" somehow destroying months worth of stock, which totally existed.

 

[hotaru251]

We've been through this all before.
If not a convenient earthquake, or a fire, we'd be getting weekly stories about random "blackouts" and "water shortages" somehow destroying months worth of stock, which totally existed.

while yes they companies do likely manipulate market (in both legal and illegal ways) this was likely a real issue.
The earthquake was bad & running the expensive equipment w/o checking could potentially cause more damages than shutting down would. (and long term)

 

[Giroro]

while yes they companies do likely manipulate market (in both legal and illegal ways) this was likely a real issue.
The earthquake was bad & running the expensive equipment w/o checking could potentially cause more damages than shutting down would. (and long term)

The realness of the issues, and the legality of the actions taken in response to those issues is up to several armies of lawyers to argue with whichever world government takes the lead this time.

At the end of the day, the cartel who is semi-perpetually under investigation for price fixing, and occasionally (but repeatedly) found guilty of price fixing, has announced their intention to fix prices this year. It looks like that got started really fast too.
So they're going to find as many "non-imprisonable" excuses as they think they can get away with (which is probably a lot) to cut production to a point just slightly above whatever level angers investors.

So, as someone who knows nothing about the factory or the earthquake. I think it's pretty safe to say they'll find some reason to keep this factory (and any other plant even slightly affected by the earthquake, or solar flares, or anything) shut down for a long time.

I just want to skip the 2 year retread of tired BS clickbait, and fast forward to the part where criminal investigations are filed, all the production problems magically disappear, all the factories instantly reopen, nobody gets punished, and technology moves forward again for about another 2 years before the cycle restarts.

 

[hotaru251]

I think it's pretty safe to say they'll find some reason to keep this factory (and any other plant even slightly affected by the earthquake, or solar flares, or anything) shut down for a long time.

and that would be stupid of them.

Any profit > paying for a building you arent using to make profit.

yes, NAND companies reduced output to raise prices (which is legal as they have no legal requirement to produce a specific amount its up to their whim) but business is still business.

 

[JTWrenn]

The realness of the issues, and the legality of the actions taken in response to those issues is up to several armies of lawyers to argue with whichever world government takes the lead this time.

At the end of the day, the cartel who is semi-perpetually under investigation for price fixing, and occasionally (but repeatedly) found guilty of price fixing, has announced their intention to fix prices this year. It looks like that got started really fast too.
So they're going to find as many "non-imprisonable" excuses as they think they can get away with (which is probably a lot) to cut production to a point just slightly above whatever level angers investors.

So, as someone who knows nothing about the factory or the earthquake. I think it's pretty safe to say they'll find some reason to keep this factory (and any other plant even slightly affected by the earthquake, or solar flares, or anything) shut down for a long time.

I just want to skip the 2 year retread of tired BS clickbait, and fast forward to the part where criminal investigations are filed, all the production problems magically disappear, all the factories instantly reopen, nobody gets punished, and technology moves forward again for about another 2 years before the cycle restarts.

Your comment feels very close to denying the pain Japan is going through right now. I get that these companies suck, but that doesn't mean it's ok to look at an earthquake and push conspiracies when people died. Chill out, have some class. They don't need to shut down factories to do this, just slow production which they can do on a whim.

 

[4m12020]

The realness of the issues, and the legality of the actions taken in response to those issues is up to several armies of lawyers to argue with whichever world government takes the lead this time.

At the end of the day, the cartel who is semi-perpetually under investigation for price fixing, and occasionally (but repeatedly) found guilty of price fixing, has announced their intention to fix prices this year. It looks like that got started really fast too.
So they're going to find as many "non-imprisonable" excuses as they think they can get away with (which is probably a lot) to cut production to a point just slightly above whatever level angers investors.

So, as someone who knows nothing about the factory or the earthquake. I think it's pretty safe to say they'll find some reason to keep this factory (and any other plant even slightly affected by the earthquake, or solar flares, or anything) shut down for a long time.

I just want to skip the 2 year retread of tired BS clickbait, and fast forward to the part where criminal investigations are filed, all the production problems magically disappear, all the factories instantly reopen, nobody gets punished, and technology moves forward again for about another 2 years before the cycle restarts.

"At the end of the day, the cartel who is semi-perpetually under investigation for price fixing, and occasionally (but repeatedly) found guilty of price fixing"

This is just false and cannot be substantiated with links. It was 17 years ago since price fixing happened. Memory and storage companies are constantly under the microscope now and have had charges brought up and dismissed for lack of evidence repeatedly. The fact is that they have been losing money on every NAND chip sale going on two years now, but people get upset when they raise prices to a point where they are just sustaining themselves.