July 12, 2006 – Toshiba Corp. and SanDisk Corp. announced plans to construct a NAND memory chip plant in Japan, according to a Reuters report last Thursday. Both companies will jointly finance the construction, costing an estimated $5.2 billion.
The new plant will be the fifth in a series of Toshiba’s NAND flash memory factories, according to Reuters. Toshiba is the world’s second largest manufacturer of NAND flash memory, following Samsung. With this new plant, Toshiba plans to double NAND chips output by the 2008 fiscal year, reported Reuters.
Toshiba and SanDisk partnered in April 2006 in announcing a NAND flash memory production plant in Yokkaichi, Japan. Construction for the Yokkaichi plant will start in August of this year, according to a SanDisk April press release.
Toshiba’s latest plant construction, Reuters reported, will be built in Iwate Prefecture, northern Japan, although Toshiba has not released that information. According to Toshiba, “The details of the plan, including candidate sites, are still under consideration and yet to be determined,” said Toshiba’s July 7th press release.
Operations for Toshiba’s newest plant will start in 2008/2009, according to Reuters.
