Toshiba to increase chip production with new facility

TMC – Toshiba Memory Corporation – will establish a company to operate the facility, and invest about JPY 7 billion (EUR 51,76 million) in site preparation and initial construction work. The company first announced these plans back in September of 2017 and has now chosen to go ahead with the plans. The future facility will produce BiCS Flash, TMC’s proprietary flash memory and this will be the company’s seventh fab facility. Continued strong demand for flash memory from data centres and enterprise servers has already prompted TMC to expand its memory production facilities at Yokkaichi Operations in Mie Prefecture. With Fab 6 under construction and scheduled for completion at the end of 2018, TMC is now looking further into the future, and moving forward with the construction of an additional 3D flash memory clean room to meet anticipated growth in demand, the company states in a press release. TMC will complete acquisition of land for the new facility and start site preparation in February 2018, and make initial orders for construction materials and equipment at the same time. Further information on the construction schedule and pace of facility investment at Kitakami will be announced in FY2018, the company says. TMC will establish a new company, Toshiba Memory Iwate Corporation, to manage the start-up and operation of the facility.