Analyst: Toshiba NAND flash capacity sold out

Don't look now, but Toshiba Corp. is sold out of NANDflash-memory fab capacity, according to an analyst.

In fact, Toshiba Tokyo is turning away business. "Toshiba comments that demand-supply situation is favorable and that it must refuse 25 percent of its orders, given its 100 percent factoryutilization rate," said David Motozo Rubenstein, senior analyst for Jefferies Japan Ltd, in a recent report.

There is more good news. NAND flash "average selling prices fell 70 percent in last year and the company had projected a further 50 percent decline this year, but prices are well above expectations to date," he said.

It has impacted the bottom line. "In Q1, the firm revised its operating profit to $605 million from $345.5 million, owing to better than expected pricing in flash memory," he said.