Yang Jie of The Wall Street Journal tells his readers about how a Taiwan earthquake tested the readiness of the world’s chip-making hub. Jie writes:
The world’s most important semiconductor-manufacturing hub is also one of the world’s biggest earthquake hot spots, and it was put to the test Wednesday after a powerful quake.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing—which makes chips for customers such as Apple and occupies a critical place in the global electronics supply chain—has prepared for years for a quake, drawing on lessons from a 2011 disaster in Japan among others.
TSMC briefly evacuated some of its locations Wednesday and suspended work at some plants after an estimated 7.4-magnitude quake struck eastern Taiwan. It said initial inspections found safety systems were operating normally and no one was hurt. […]
The Hsinchu Science Park and the region around it are the hub for Taiwan’s manufacturing industry, hosting factories that make, package and test semiconductors as well as makers of displays used in computers and other devices. TSMC also operates a plant in Tainan in the south, mass-producing the most advanced semiconductors.
TSMC said those who were evacuated in the morning returned to work later in the day. It said some work was suspended for the day without giving specifics. Other companies also said they evacuated workers and pre-emptively shut down some equipment for further inspection.
Read more here.
