A fire broke out yesterday morning at AU Optronics Corp’s (AUO, 友達光電) advanced 8.5-generation plant in Houli (后里), Greater Taichung, because of a gas leak, the nation’s second-largest LCD panel maker said.
The fire did not cause serious damage to its manufacturing facilities and there were no casualties, AU Optronics said in a statement.
The plant, located in the Central Taiwan Science Park, is the company’s first 8.5G fab, producing 40,000 units of 2.2x2.5 square meters of LCD glass sheets per month, used for cutting into six 52-inch TV panels or eight 46-inch TV panels per sheet.
Photo: Chang Hsuan-che, Taipei Times
AU Optronics said the fire broke out around 9am after silane gas leaked from a flawed backup cylinder. Local firefighters applied massive water spray to lower the cylinder’s temperature and the fire was contained within the faulty cylinder, according to the statement.
As the cylinder was located in a separate building, the company’s production lines and office buildings were not affected.
“All manufacturing facilities and personnel are safe,” it said.
Addressing concern about the huge flames caused by the fire, the science park’s administration office said silane gas is not environmentally toxic, citing an initial evaluation by the Environmental Protection Administration.
There is low risk of an explosion from the gas leak as firefighters have significantly lowered the temperature in the cylinder, the park administration said.
An AU Optronics official told local business news channel Unique Satellite TV (非凡電視) at noon that it might take two more hours for the gas leak in the problematic cylinder to burn out.
A Central News Agency report yesterday said the fire was finally put out at around 5pm.
AU Optronics shares rose 1.59 percent to NT$12.80 yesterday, trailing the benchmark TAIEX, which rallied 2.6 percent. Rival Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子) dropped 0.79 percent to NT$12.50.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last