BANGKOK – Rampant flooding north of Bangkok has put several electronics manufacturing facilities in the region at risk.

Locals are calling it a 100-year-flood, but the bigger problem, however, might not be water damage but rather shutdowns caused by washed out or blocked roads that prevent workers from reaching the plants.

Fabrinet, one of the largest EMS companies in Thailand, has two factories in the area. One is elevated some 1.5 meters, however, and CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY sources indicate the factories are intact. There is no main highway connection to the city, however, and workers cannot leave their homes because of the water, the source told CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY. Fabrinet’s main manufacturing capacity for optical components is located in this region. To date, Fabrinet has not officially commented on its manufacturing facilities.

The market for optical components manufacturing is roughly $2.5 billion, according to Fabrinet, with approximately 40% of this currently outsourced. Of this, Fabrinet would represent 60% to 65%, based on the company’s revenue, says Deutsche Bank. DB believes roughly 25% of optical component manufacturing could be impacted if Fabrinet’s facilities were offline for any lengthy period.

The Rojana Industrial Park, home to several members of the hard-disk drive supply chain, has closed due to a combination of flooding and its effects. Full recovery will take a minimum of six weeks, various news outlets are reporting. Among the companies affected by the flooding are Western Digital, Seagate, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and Toshiba.

More than 900 factories in all have reported to have closed, and more than 9 million people are affected by the floods.

• Prev
• Next