TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp. said on Monday its microchip plant in western Japan had resumed normal operations after some production facilities at the factory came to an automatic halt following an early morning earthquake.

There were no casualties and little disruption of output at the Oita plant, which makes system chips, said a spokeswoman for Toshiba, the world's fourth-largest chip maker.

A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 jolted western and southern Japan on Monday, injuring at least seven people and disrupting transport.

Elpida Memory Inc. also said operations at its Hiroshima plant in western Japan had virtually returned to normal by early afternoon after part of a production line was stopped when the earthquake struck at 5:01 a.m. (2001 GMT).

Elpida, the world's fifth-largest dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip maker, said there were no casualties or damage to the plant, which has the capacity to process over 54,000 units of 300-mm wafers a month. It expected no supply disruption.

Article comes from REUTERS

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