TSMC evacuated cleanroom staff during earthquake aftershocks up to magnitude 6.3 on Tuesday

Mark Tyson
·2 min read
TSMC manufacturing.
TSMC manufacturing.

Taiwan was rocked by a series of strong earthquakes on Monday and Tuesday. According to the Central News Agency, there were an astonishing “103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 or higher” recorded between 5.08pm Monday and 10.27am today. Despite two quakes measuring magnitude 6.0 and 6.3 early Tuesday, only “a small number of cleanroom staff were immediately evacuated,” from TSMC fabs, reports DigiTimes. These quakes are officially claimed to be aftershocks from the April 3 magnitude 7.2 earthquake which caused significant loss of life and damage to property.

TSMC evacuated the cleanroom staff as a precautionary measure, to ensure their safety, notes the source, and staff have since returned to work. Importantly, from an economic and business standpoint, DigiTimes sources indicate that there is no impact expected on the contract chipmaker. Moreover, it is claimed that all TSMC factory operations and safety systems are functioning normally and all personnel are safe. Perhaps TSMC will release an official update in the coming hours but if there was truly no damage or adverse impacts during the latest series of quakes it may not.

Two 6M+ quakes occurred early Tuesday
Two 6M+ quakes occurred early Tuesday

If Taiwan’s tech giants escaped entirely unscathed from the 103 strong quakes through Monday and Tuesday, it will be remarkable. We initially reported that the 7.2 magnitude quake on April 3 cost TSMC approximately $62 million. This early estimate actually undercut what TSMC later said were losses amounting to $92.44 million.

In early April, contributing to TSMC’s reinstatement and repair costs were both factory downtime and repairs to things like broken factory pipelines, beams, and columns, as well as cracked walls and damaged wafers. This time TSMC facilities have got off much more lightly, according to the source.

Across the whole island, and considering other important tech businesses, there may be more damage yet to be reported. We haven’t yet heard any reports or rumors about quake damage at other big tech manufacturers like Foxconn, Micron, UMC, Pegatron, Compal, or Quanta Computer, for example.