Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) on February 6 estimated wafer shipments in the first quarter of 2016 would decrease less than 1% due to the impact of a large earthquake hitting southern Taiwan in the early morning of February 6, but on February 12 indicated that the decrease in wafer shipments will be more than 1%, because damage to Fab 14 is worse than originally assessed.

TSMC originally estimated that more than 95% of foundry machines could be restored to normal conditions in 2-3 days following the earthquake. Machines at Fab 6 and Fab 14B have already been fully restored, the company said.

Despite the earthquake, TSMC said it is confident of hitting target consolidated revenues of NT$198-201 billion (US$5.9-6.0 billion) for the first quarter of 2016.

Panel maker Innolux indicated that the earthquake did not damage 3.5G and 4G factories, but did affect 5G and 6G factories at STSP, with restoration estimated to take a week. Innolux has shifted partial production from factories at STSP to a factory in northern Taiwan to minimize the impact on shipments, the company said.

In a bid to minimize the impact of earthquakes, the STSP administration will cooperate with the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering under the government-sponsored National Applied Research Laboratories to set up an earthquake early warning system and disaster information and analysis mechanism.

By: DocMemory
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