El Segundo, Calif. — The entire electronics supply chain is expected to fully recover in the third quarter of 2011 from the Japan earthquake and tsunami on March 11, reported IHS iSuppli.
Electronics companies with operations near the epicenter of the quake that had suffered building and equipment damage are expected to restore full shipments by early September, six months after the quake, said IHS, which coincides with the peak season for electronics and semiconductor sales in the third quarter. Fourteen semiconductor suppliers and four silicon wafer makers in Japan were impacted by the quake.
“In the history of the electronics supply chain, nothing has had such a broad impact as the Japan earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster,” said Dale Ford, senior vice president for semiconductor market intelligence at IHS, speaking at the IHS Design & Supply Chain Global Summit last week in San Jose, Calif.
“The worldwide repercussions of the catastrophe illustrated the global and interconnected nature of the electronics industry, with the impact of the disaster reverberating through the materials, components and equipment segments of the supply chain. However, even the semiconductor companies suffering the most direct damage from the quake, full production will resume near the end of the third quarter,” Ford added.
Following normal seasonal patterns, global semiconductor revenue growth will hit an annual increase in the third quarter, with a sequential rise of 7.4 percent, according to IHS research. This compares to a 1.4 percent decline in the first quarter, a 2.9 percent increase in the second quarter and a 3.1 percent rise in the fourth quarter.
Key markets impacted by the Japan disaster were automotive equipment followed by consumer electronics. Automotive was hit the hardest with Japan accounting for 31.5 percent of global semiconductor production for automotive electronics, said IHS. The disaster had a moderate impact on production for consumer electronics, although Japan accounts for 45.1 percent of global consumer electronics semiconductor production.
“The impact on the wireless and data processing semiconductor markets was mild, while the wired communications segment wasn’t affected at all,” said IHS.