Taiwan’s biggest earthquake since 1999 is set to affect Apple and Nvidia EV industry as well notebook manufacturers claim analysts.
The 7.2 magnitude earthquake is expected to cause supply chain problems similar to COVID issues across Asia’s semiconductor supply chain, analysts said, after chipmakers from TSMC to UMC halted some operations to inspect facilities and relocate employees.
The powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake resulted in the death of nine people and injuring 900.
The island plays an outsized role in the global chip supply chain and home to the world’s largest chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, which supplies chips to a multitude of manufacturers.
Acer Chairman and CEO Jason Chen said there was no material impact on operations at the notebook manufacturer at this time.
Market reaction to the quake was fairly muted.
The benchmark Taiex Index fell as much as 1% before paring declines, with losses tracking those of the broader MSCI Asia Pacific Index.
Other tech Companies currently reviewing their operation include UMC, Vanguard International Semiconductor, and Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing.
While most of their facilities are not close to the earthquake’s epicentre, many of the firms said they had evacuated some of their manufacturing plants and shut down some facilities for inspections.
TSMC said overnight that work at its construction sites, which has been halted, will resume after inspections, while impacted facilities are expected to restart production today.
The chipmaker, whose facilities in Hsinchu, Tainan, and Taichung have experienced varying degrees of disruptions, may have to delay some shipments, and increase wafer input to compensate for this, consultancy Isaiah Research said in a note.
“Mitigating the impacts of the earthquake necessitates careful measures and time to restore production and uphold quality standards, presenting additional implications and obstacles,” they said.
TSMC’s Tainan operations for advanced process nodes, such as 4/5nm and 3nm, were temporarily suspended, they said. In addition, the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment crucial for these advanced nodes was halted at the site for a period of 8-to-15 hours.
Barclays analysts said some highly sophisticated semiconductor fabs need to operate seamlessly 24/7 in a vacuum state for several weeks and the halts would disrupt the process, pushing up pricing pressure in the sector.
This could spill over to cause a “short-term hiccup” to electronics manufacturing in economies focused on upstream products, such as Japan and Korea, as well as economies focused on downstream products, such as China and Vietnam, they said.
