Japan's Toshiba restarts shipments at flood-hit Thai plant

A logo of Toshiba Corp is seen on a printed circuit board in this photo illustration taken in Tokyo July 31, 2012.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's leading chipmaker Toshiba Corp said on Wednesday it had restarted production at its semiconductor facility in Thailand and resumed shipping discrete chips used in smartphones and tablet PCs.

Toshiba's plant in Pathumthani, located north of Bangkok, was shuttered for almost a year after a massive flood hit the country last year. Production at the facility restarted on November 1 and shipments began on Wednesday, Toshiba said.

The company is building a new plant in Purachinburi in southeastern Thailand and expects to move all production to the new plant by spring next year.

(Reporting by Mari Saito; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)