Toshiba Memory Eyeing Active Investment in Iwate Plant

July 25, 2018

Kitakami, Iwate Pref.- Toshiba Memory Corp. President Yasuo Naruke has indicated the company's intention to actively invest in Iwate Prefecture, northeastern Japan, where it plans to build a new semiconductor plant.

On Tuesday, the company held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new factory in the city of Kitakami in the prefecture. "We'll continue investing in Iwate," Naruke told a press conference in the city the same day.

Toshiba Memory currently plans to spend about one trillion yen on the new base. Through additional investment, it hopes to raise the plant's production capacity to a level on par with that of its existing key factory in the city of Yokkaichi in the central prefecture of Mie.

The Iwate plant, which will have a total floor space of about 40,000 square meters, is slated to start mass production in 2020 after being completed in autumn next year.

The facility will manufacture high-volume three-dimensional flash memory chips, used in such products as smartphones.

Naruke said that the timing of additional investment in the new plant depends on semiconductor market conditions.

Toshiba Memory, formerly a unit of Toshiba Corp. , was sold to a consortium led by U.S. private equity fund Bain Capital in June. Jiji Press