Xi'an chip factory operating normally, Samsung Electronics says

Samsung Electronics said Wednesday its chipmaking facility in the Chinese city of Xi'an has returned to normal as the city has lifted a lockdown.

The world's largest memory chip maker had temporarily adjusted operations at its NAND flash chips manufacturing base late last month following the lockdown in the city.

The draconian restrictions imposed on Dec. 22 banned the city's 13 million citizens from venturing out and doing nonessential activities to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

The Xi'an manufacturing complex is Samsung's only overseas facility that produces NAND flash memory chips.

Samsung was the world's biggest NAND flash provider with 34.5 percent of market share in the third quarter of last year according to industry tracker TrendForce. NAND flash is a type of non-volatile storage that does not require power to store data.

The chipmaker had operated the Xi'an base business-as-usual for about a week before it was forced to reduce production "in accordance with our commitment to protecting the health and safety of our employees and partners."

Yonhap