Toshiba to build new NAND memory factory

TOKYO, JAPAN: Toshiba Corp said on Tuesday it will resume plans to build a new NAND flash memory factory, a further sign of growing optimism in the sector about growth in chip demand.

The world's second-largest NAND flash memory maker behind Samsung Electronics said the popularity of smartphones and other gadgets was behind rising demand for NAND memory.

Rivals like Samsung and SanDisk Corp have also given bullish outlooks for the chip market, which had been battered amid the global economic downturn.

Toshiba said it would start the construction of its fifth plant in Mie, central Japan, where all of its NAND memory production is located but added that it has not decided on the scale of investment or the plant's output capacity.

The company had originally planned to start the construction of the plant in spring 2009 and for it to be completed this year but the project had been put on hold following the industry slump.

Toshiba shares jumped 3.8 percent to 467 yen, outperforming a 0.2 percent decline in the benchmark Nikkei average, buoyed by a report that Toshiba and Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates would team up to develop a next-generation nuclear reactor that can operate for up to 100 years without refuelling.

Toshiba later said it was in talks with TerraPower, which is effectively owned by Gates, about the joint development of small nuclear reactors.