Fujitsu to restart quake-hit Japan chip plant in 2-3 days

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese electronics conglomerate Fujitsu Ltd said it aimed to get a semiconductor factory damaged by a powerful earthquake in northern Japan up and running again in two to three days.

The 7.2 magnitude quake struck on Saturday at 8:43 a.m. local time in the prefectures of Miyagi and Iwate, a region around 300 km (190 miles) north of Tokyo and home to several major semiconductor and auto factories.

Fujitsu and Sony Corp had halted production lines for semiconductors and other electronics products at factories in the region to check equipment.

A Fujitsu spokesman said the quake had damaged equipment at a factory in Iwate and that it would aim to restart production early in the week. The factory makes logic LSI (large-scale integration) chips and is operated by unit Fujitsu Microelectronics.

Sony said on Saturday that it had restarted production at four of six factories in the region where output was halted while equipment was checked.

Of the remaining two, it plans to restart production at a plant making communications-related products on Monday while it was still assessing the situation at another factory in Miyagi operated by its Sony Chemical and Information Device unit.

The quake also knocked over some equipment at a factory in Iwate operated by Kanto Auto Works Ltd, which assembles the Corolla and other models for Japan's top automaker Toyota Motor Corp.

The damage appeared to be minor and the firm is checking to see if it can operate as usual on Monday, a spokesman for Kanto Auto said on Saturday.

(Reporting by Kentaro Hamada and Nathan Layne; Editing by Kim Coghill)