Thu, Apr 04, 2024 page12

• Chip companies report limited damage from earthquake

  SHAKING RESPONSE: TSMC said that its employees returned to work after being evacuated temporarily from some factories and it was conducting inspections

  • By Lisa Wang / Staff reporter
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  Taiwan’s major chip companies, led by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), reported limited damage from yesterday’s magnitude 7.2 earthquake, the strongest in 25 years, major science parks and analysts said.

  “There were no major production disruptions due to the quake at companies that operate in the park,” Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) Bureau deputy director-general Chen Shu-chu (陳淑珠) said by telephone.

  “As the earthquake was larger than magnitude 5, the companies were required by law to evacuate their workers,” Chen said.

  

  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s logo is pictured atop a building at the Hsinchu Science Park on Oct. 17 last year.

  Photo: An Rong Xu, Bloomberg

  Infrastructure at the science park, including for power and water, was not affected, she said.

  Contract chipmakers TSMC, United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) and Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電), as well as flat-panel maker Innolux Corp (群創), halted some of their production lines earlier yesterday in the park as a preventive step, she said.

  TSMC employees returned to work after being evacuated temporarily from some factories across Taiwan after the temblor hit, the chipmaker said in a statement, adding that it was inspecting its facilities to ensure their safety.

  As a precautionary measure, the company suspended all construction work at multiple sites nationwide, TSMC said. Construction is to resume following safety checks, it said.

  TSMC said in a separate statement late last night that more than 70 percent of its chipmaking tools had recovered within 10 hours of the earthquake, while that the recovery rate of chip equipment operations at its most advanced factory, such as the Fab 18 in the Southern Taiwan Science Park's (南部科學園區) Tainan section, had exceeded 80 percent.

  TSMC said its major machines including all extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment remained undamaged, although a few pieces of equipment in some areas were damaged, affecting production lines there.

  The company has allocated resources to expedite comprehensive recovery and maintained close communication with its customers about any relevant impacts, it added.

  UMC, which also temporarily evacuated workers at its fabs at the Southern Taiwan Science Park, said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange that some uncompleted wafers were damaged, but it expected there would be no substantial effect on its finances, as wafer production and shipments were being restored.

  Market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said that the memory and foundry industries should have had “minimal damage” from the earthquake, as the DRAM factories operated by Micron Technology Inc and Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) are primarily in central and northern Taiwan, while foundry companies operate factories far from the epicenter on the east coast.

  “Most chip manufacturers would quickly restore wafer capacity lost during the quake by extending working hours,” TrendForce said in a note.

  The impact on artificial intelligence chip supply to Nvidia Corp should be manageable, as the chips are made in TSMC’s fab in Tainan, TrendForce said.

  Operations at the fab should resume promptly, as only some equipment was briefly taken offline for checks, it said.

  No evacuations were conducted at the Tainan fab, it added.

  Micron delayed its release of DRAM price quotes as it awaited damage assessments, as most of its chips are made in Taichung, TrendForce said.

  The US chipmaker might restart price discussions for chip delivery this quarter after factoring in damage from the quake, TrendForce said, adding that Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc also stopped price discussions.

  Wafer probing service provider Chunghwa Precision Test Technology Co (中華精測) said its operations were recovering gradually after conducting checks of its manufacturing facilities in Taoyuan.

  No major impact was expected, it said.

  The administration agency of Southern Taiwan Science Park said companies at its Tainan and Kaohsiung sections, including Innolux and HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶), had sustained limited damage and were operating normally, as their plants are designed to withstand a magnitude 7 quake.
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