Contamination to Cost Western Digital 7 Exabytes of ‘Flash Availability’

Western Digital’s flash memory production at two Japanese fabs it runs in a joint venture with Kioxia “returned to normal” last week after the contamination of materials used in its manufacturing processes halted operations earlier in February, said the company Thursday. Western Digital’s “flash availability” will be reduced by about 7 exabytes (7 billion gigabytes), mainly in the second half of its fiscal 2022 ending in early July, “as the facilities ramp back to full production output,” it said. Dell Technologies warned last week of a resulting supply “gap” and rising prices in a “commodity that is in great demand” (see 2202250003).