Major producers of bismaleimide-triazine (BT) resin, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical (MGC) and Hitachi Chemical, are recovering faster than expected from the suspension of operations caused by the recent earthquake in Japan, according to sources at IC substrate suppliers.

The earthquake struck the northeast coast of Japan on March 11 where major raw material suppliers such as AKM Semiconductor, MGC, Renesas Electronics and Shin-Etsu Chemical have operations.

Production levels at MGC and Hitachi are expected to be at more than 50% of pre-earthquake levels by the end of April 2011, the sources indicated. Despite that concerns over the impact of Japan's quake have eased, IC substrate companies including ASE Material, Compeq Manufacturing, Kinsus Interconnect Technology and Unimicron Technology have observed that diversifying their material supplies is necessary, and are stepping up efforts to complete validation with new suppliers. Korea-based Doosan and LG Chemical, and Taiwan-based Nan Ya Printed Circuit Board (NPC) and Elite Material (EMC) reportedly are among the substrate firms approached.

In other news, MGC has revealed that it expects to restore production to pre-earthquake levels in early May.