Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said operations at all of its plants had returned to normal after an early morning magnitude 6.6 earthquake near Hualien caused sporadic evacuations and minor machine damage.
Technical hiccups triggered by the earthquake, which struck off the coast of Hualien County at 1:41am, had been rectified following an inspection, TSMC said.
The world’s largest contract chipmaker said that temporarily evacuated workers had all returned to production lines with the effect on operations expected to be minimal.
Photo: I-Hwa Cheng, Bloomberg
TSMC runs advanced wafer plants at the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區) and the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學園區).
The earthquake reached “6 weak” on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, which gauges the actual effect of a quake, in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), hitting 5 in other parts of the county and in Hualien County.
United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), a smaller contract chipmaker with wafer plants in Hsinchu and Tainan, said that some of its production equipment had been affected by the earthquake, but that self-protection mechanisms had nullified the impact on its operations.
Fellow contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電), based primarily at Hsinchu Science Park, said the earthquake had caused a loss of only two to three hours of production.
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) said it has been checking for possible effects of the earthquake at its wafer plants in Hsinchu.
Flat panel maker AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) said the quake had caused temporary suspension of some of its production, but operations had returned to normal.
Rival Innolux Corp (群創光電) also reported a temporary halt to production due to the triggering of anti-shake mechanisms.
However, the firm said the impact was expected to be minimal, with all employees safe and operations returning to normal.
Administrators at the three science parks said they had not received reports of damage from tenants, with only Southern Taiwan Science Park reporting that machines were affected, but no material impact was expected.
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