Sharp suspends production at its two largest LCD factories following Japanese quake

Toshiba, Hitachi, and Panasonic already said they might shutter their lcd plants for a month following the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami that struck the rustic on March 11. Now, Japan’s largest exporter of LCD TVs ( Sharp , for those keeping notes) has suspended production at its two biggest factories, because of a shortage of a gas utilized in the producing process. The Osaka and Mie plants, that have a combined capacity of 172,000 sets monthly, won’t reopen until May 6, on the earliest. Until then, the corporate claims it has enough TVs in its inventory to last a couple of month. One JP Morgan Chase analyst estimates that the corporate stands to lose 50 billion yen ($590 million) this fiscal year end result of the freeze.

That each one seems trivial, in fact, due to the fact that greater than 27,000 people in Northeastern Japan are dead or missing and the rustic is widening its evacuation zone, all while recovering from relentless aftershocks, including one which hit yesterday. Still, the domino effect of a strangled supply chain remains relevant to us as tech journalists, particularly if a lack in materials has the potential to drive up prices — and affect as many sorts of products as we predict it’ll.

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This post is tagged: analyst estimates, liquid crystal display, magnitude earthquake, manufacturing process, northeastern japan