TAIPEI, Taiwan - In Kumamoto City, Kyushu Prefecture, Japan on April 14 and 16 two powerful earthquakes of over 6 magnitude occurred. The earthquakes caused numerous factories in Kyushu Prefecture to halt production, including sensor component manufacturers such as Renesas Electronics, which manufactures semiconductor integrated circuits for Sony, Mitsubishi Electric, which manufactures LCD modules, Toyota, which manufactures Blue-ray LEDs, and Tokyo Electron, which manufactures semiconductor equipment.
PIDA pointed out that Sony fears that the halt in production at sensor component factories will negatively influence clients’ shipping schedules.
Two of Sony’s sensor module manufacturers were located near the epicenters in Kikuchi District, Kumamoto and Nagasaki. The Kumamoto chip factory mainly manufactures CCD and CMOS image sensors with a monthly production capacity of 240,000 chips; whereas the Nagasaki factory has a monthly production capacity of 320,000 chips.
Taking the iPhone supply chain as an example, Sony’s image sensors are shipped to Largan Precision Co., Ltd. After they are integrated with Largan’s lenses, they are then sent to Hon Hai and Pegatron for assembly. However, Sony’s supply shortage may indirectly affect backend Taiwanese manufacturers.
Sony is ranked as having the highest global market share in the image sensor market, especially for upper-end image sensor components. However, due to the influence of the earthquake, the number two and number three companies, Omnivision and Samsung now have the opportunity to increase their market shares.
(TR/ Phil Sweeney)
