April 22, 2002 – Tokyo, Japan – Toshiba Corp. has restarted one of two semiconductor fabrication lines at its main memory chip production plant in Yokkaichi, central Japan, after shutting down the line in late September due to a plunge in demand.

“This is simply because the chip market has turned up,” said a spokesman at the company.

Toshiba’s chip production capacity at the Yokkaichi plant has doubled to the original 70,000 200mm wafers/month, reported the Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

The central Japan plant makes flash memories, SRAMs, pseudo SRAMs, and customize-oriented DRAMs.

The move follows Hitachi Ltd. saying it won’t stop any of its semiconductor production lines in Japan during the upcoming Golden Week holiday period, and it has ended emergency steps introduced last November to cut working hours of production staff.

Toshiba also said it will keep operating its four main chip plants in Japan during Golden Week, except for inevitable stoppages, including a three-day halt required for regular maintenance at its Oita, southern Japan, plant.

During the holiday week last year, Toshiba stopped production lines at all four plants for between five and six days, the spokesman said.

This year’s Golden Week is from April 27 to May 6.