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TSMC office building. Photo = TSMC homepage |
[Alpha Biz= Reporter Paul Lee] While TSMC, a local foundry company, ordered to evacuate employees due to a strong 7.4-magnitude earthquake in Taiwan on the morning of the 3rd, industries are paying close attention to whether it will affect Korean semiconductors as well.
According to the Korea Meteorological Administration, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck the 23km waters south-southeast of Hualian Prefecture, Taiwan, at 9 a.m. (local time 8 a.m.). Two hours later, at 11 o'clock, a 6.2-magnitude aftershock followed in the 38km waters northeast of Hualien Prefecture.
Reuters reported that four people were killed, dozens injured, and tsunami warnings were once issued in southern Japan and the Philippines.
Taiwan's TSMC issued an evacuation order to production line workers after the earthquake. The company said, "We are checking the details of the current impact." Taiwanese authorities said they found that there was no significant impact on the TSMC plant because it was far from the earthquake site.
TSMC is a dominant foundry manufacturer in the global semiconductor market. As of the fourth quarter of last year, the market share reached 61%.
Samsung Electronics believes there will be no major damage as it has no business in Taiwan other than a sales corporation.
If TSMC production disruptions occur, domino effects are expected. This is because if TSMC fab, which produces 'big hands' chips such as Apple and NVIDIA, stops, mass production of major products, including AI chips, will be delayed one after another. This is also directly related to the production and sale of major electronic devices such as mobile and servers.
알파경제 Paul Lee (hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
