Most chip and flat-panel manufacturing facilities have resumed normal operations after a brief pause due to the magnitude 7.2 earthquake on Wednesday, the National Science and Technology Council said in a statement yesterday.
Major foundry companies and flat-panel makers in the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) restarted most of their equipment on the same day as the quake, leaving only a few still making final adjustments to return to full operations, the council said.
“Major foundry companies have smoothly restarted their manufacturing equipment. They have sufficient stocks of materials,” it said.
Photo: Mike Kai Chen, Bloomberg
At the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), semiconductor companies rebooted 90 percent of manufacturing equipment on Wednesday before resuming full operations yesterday, while those in the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學園區) resumed work on Wednesday at noon, it said.
“The swift recovery can be attributed to chipmakers’ preparedness, as their facilities and equipment incorporate quake-resistant and protection mechanisms,” council spokesperson Andrea Hsu (許增如) said by telephone. “They [chipmakers] fared much better than 25 years ago and in 2018 when strong earthquakes struck Taiwan... The brief production stoppage should lead to manageable losses for the companies.”
Taiwan plays an outsized role in the global economy because its companies craft the semiconductors at the foundation of technologies like artificial intelligence, smartphones and electric vehicles. Led by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), local firms produce an estimated 80 percent to 90 percent of the highest-end chips.
TSMC, the leading producer of advanced chips for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp, said yesterday that about 80 percent of its wafer manufacturing equipment had resumed operation and operation at new fabs had been fully restored.
But, it would take longer time to restart automotive production lines at fabs located in areas with greater quake impact, TSMC said in a statement late last night.
Major manufacturing equipment including all extreme-ultraviolet-lithography tools, which are used to produce advanced chips such as 3-nanometer chips, emerged unscathed from the quake, the chipmaker said. All fab construction in Taiwan has restarted as no safety concerns were found, it added.
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進), a TSMC affiliate, said it had brought about 80 percent of its machinery back online by noon yesterday and was resuming production gradually, while United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) said the quake had not had any major impact on operations and it would restart normal operations and shipments soon.
TSMC should see limited impact as most of its fabs are in areas less affected by the earthquake, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a note yesterday.
As the company has resumed operations of its advanced fabs, which produce 5, 4 and 3-nanometer chips, in just six to eight hours after the quake hit, the damage should be manageable, the researcher said.
However, broken water pipes at TSMC’s Fab 12 in Hsinchu might affect the facility’s operations in the short term and even cause a slight increase in capital spending for the chipmaker, TrendForce said.
Fab 12 is expected to start producing 2-nanometer chips by the end of this year, TSMC said earlier.
The researcher estimated the earthquake would not significantly affect TSMC’s advanced chip packaging facilities in the Longtan (龍潭) section of the Hsinchu Science Park as the chipmaker has backup equipment to replace damaged water chillers.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would not produce its most advanced technologies in the US next year, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the comment during an appearance at the legislature, hours after the chipmaker announced that it would invest an additional US$100 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in the US. Asked by Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) if TSMC would allow its most advanced technologies, the yet-to-be-released 2-nanometer and 1.6-nanometer processes, to go to the US in the near term, Kuo denied it. TSMC recently opened its first US factory, which produces 4-nanometer
PROTECTION: The investigation, which takes aim at exporters such as Canada, Germany and Brazil, came days after Trump unveiled tariff hikes on steel and aluminum products US President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered a probe into potential tariffs on lumber imports — a move threatening to stoke trade tensions — while also pushing for a domestic supply boost. Trump signed an executive order instructing US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to begin an investigation “to determine the effects on the national security of imports of timber, lumber and their derivative products.” The study might result in new tariffs being imposed, which would pile on top of existing levies. The investigation takes aim at exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil, with White House officials earlier accusing these economies of
GREAT SUCCESS: Republican Senator Todd Young expressed surprise at Trump’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running US lawmakers who helped secure billions of dollars in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturing rejected US President Donald Trump’s call to revoke the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, signaling that any repeal effort in the US Congress would fall short. US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who negotiated the law, on Wednesday said that Trump’s demand would fail, while a top Republican proponent, US Senator Todd Young, expressed surprise at the president’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running. The CHIPS Act is “essential for America leading the world in tech, leading the world in AI [artificial
REACTIONS: While most analysts were positive about TSMC’s investment, one said the US expansion could disrupt the company’s supply-demand balance Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) new US$100 billion investment in the US would exert a positive effect on the chipmaker’s revenue in the medium term on the back of booming artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from US chip designers, an International Data Corp (IDC) analyst said yesterday. “This is good for TSMC in terms of business expansion, as its major clients for advanced chips are US chip designers,” IDC senior semiconductor research manager Galen Zeng (曾冠瑋) said by telephone yesterday. “Besides, those US companies all consider supply chain resilience a business imperative,” Zeng said. That meant local supply would
RSS