Japan quake delays Q1 SICAS report

Although there was no reason given for the delay, on possible cause could be uncertainty on how to record the loss of manufacturing capacity and capacity utilization at Japanese companies affected by the aftermath of March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Several fab facilities in northern Japan were damaged because of the quake. This will have had a small but significant effect in the first quarter but is set to have a much bigger effect in the second quarter.

SICAS is based on returns from 23 chip manufacturing companies and extrapolated to be representative of the overall industry.

The statistics are made available to the participating companies within six weeks of the end of the quarter and they are published on the SICAS website about a week after that. Thus, Q1 numbers are typically posted mid-to-late May.

- Peter Clarke
??EE Times