Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its operations were not affected by a spate of strong earthquakes that were centered in eastern Taiwan and shook much of the nation early yesterday morning.
In a statement, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said that soon after the earthquakes, including one of 6.3 on the Richter scale, the company followed standard procedures and evacuated workers from clean rooms in some of its fabs as a safety precaution.
TSMC said the workers were back at their posts and were all safe, while its fabs’ operations and industrial safety systems remained normal, despite the earthquakes.
Photo: AP
In the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區) and Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學園區), where TSMC operates advanced fabs, the intensity of the strongest quakes — the effects of a seismic event at a certain place — reached 3 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale.
An intensity 3 means the earthquake is felt by everyone and shakes buildings, but does not usually lead to damage.
TSMC’s smaller rival United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) said its fabs in the Hsinchu Science Park and Southern Taiwan Science Park were not affected by the earthquakes.
The magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck Hualien at 2:32am, with its epicenter in Shoufeng Township (壽豐) at a depth of 5.5km. The quake’s intensity was highest in Hualien County, where it measured 5.
That was preceded just minutes earlier by a magnitude 6.0 earthquake. Its epicenter was off the Hualien coast in the Pacific Ocean at a depth of 10km. The intensity was also highest in Hualien County, where it measured 5.
The Central Weather Administration said these quakes were all aftershocks of the main earthquake that measured 7.2 on the Richter scale that struck Hualien County on April 3.
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