Toshiba to Increase FY17 Investment in Flash From ¥400 Billion to ¥600 Billion

Toshiba Corporation will accelerate capital investment in Toshiba Memory Corporation (TMC), a wholly-owned subsidiary and raise its FY17 investment plan for the storage and devices solutions segment from ¥400 billion to ¥600 billion.

TMC owns and operates Yokkaichi Operations in Mie, Japan, production facilities for flash memory.

On October 11, Toshiba announced an increase in its investment plan for the memory business that would raise its investment in FY17 from ¥330 billion to ¥400 billion. Further to this, it has now decided to bring forward a part of the investment initially scheduled for FY2018.

Demand for TMC’s next generation 3D flash memory devices is increasing on fast growing demand for enterprise SSDs in datacenters, SSDs for PCs, and memory for smartphones. TMC expects strong market growth to continue in 2018 and beyond.

In the current semiconductor market, there are lengthening lead times for procurement of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, including deposition and etching equipment. Under the revised and accelerated plan, TMC will place equipment orders for fab 6 at Yokkaichi Operations in FY17, not FY18 as previously planned.

This timing will position TMC to capture anticipated growth and to further expand its business.

Detailed decisions on the investment will reflect market trends. TMC has asked SanDisk, its collaborator in joint ventures for investment in manufacturing equipment at TMC’s Yokkaichi Operations, whether it intends to jointly participate in the investment for fab 6.