TOSHIBA Corp yesterday said an assembly line in Japan making small liquid crystal displays would be closed for a month, highlighting the threat to global supply chains from Japan's devastating earthquake.

Toshiba's assembly line at a plant near Tokyo making LCDs for smartphones and other devices will be closed to repair sensitive equipment knocked out of alignment by last week's magnitude-9 earthquake, a spokeswoman said.

Hitachi Ltd also said production of small LCDs will be halted at its factory near Tokyo for a month as it deals with damage and power outages stemming from the quake.