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Hi Scott,
As you note, undoubtedly more of these type of stories will arise across
various industry sectors.
In the semiconductor business, about 25% of the global IC fab plant capacity is
in Japan.
So if you consider wafer production as one step in the chain and then
the next step is chip manufacture, then there are two steps to begin with that
may be impacted.
You can also actually go further up the chain before wafer production and consider
the equipment that goes into making wafer and IC production and their inspection
and many of the key players are in Japan.
As reported, many plants and offices are shutting voluntarily as part of the
power saving measures Japan is having to take.
Another one to watch for will be large LCD panels where Japan produces 14% of the
panels used in TV's but more importantly, the components for LCD panels, such as
glass, filters, etc, which still largely comes out of Japan and which are then shipped
to Korea to fabricate the LCD panels themselves. So in other words, even Korean
production of TV's could be disrupted.
I am not sure if you were working for them then, but the '93 Sumitomo fire
was one of the most disruptive events in the semiconductor business I can recall
apart from the DRAM wars.
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