Chip plant evacuations follow strong Taiwan earthquake

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co – a major supplier of chips to Apple and Nvidia has confirmed that it has evacuated some fabrication plants following today’s earthquake in the island nation.

The epicentre of the 7.2 magnitude quake – the strongest to hit the country in 25 years – has been located in the sparsely populated eastern province of Hualien.

Reuters reports that the quake, which struck at 8am UK time, has claimed the lives of 7 people with 700 injured and 77 trapped in tunnels.

Television broadcast images show damage to collapsed buildings in Hualien.

There has also been concern for the country’s fab plants, which produce 60% of the world’s semiconductors – used in everything from mobile phones to electric cars.

Any slight impact on Taiwan’s chip plants can have a major impact on the world’s tech supply chains, as experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Taiwan: When the chips are down

Fabs are vulnerable to even the slightest tremors. A single vibration can destroy entire batches of the precision-made semiconductors.

Most of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s plants however, are to be found on the opposite side of the island to the epicentre, but staff were evacuated as a precaution.

“To ensure the safety of personnel, some fabs were evacuated according to company procedure,” the semiconductor giant said in a statement, adding later that the employees had begun to return to work.

In Japan, another of the world’s major chip producers, there have been weather agency reports of small tsunami waves reaching parts of the southern side of Okinawa.

However, an earlier tsunami warning there has now been downgraded to an advisory.

Today’s earthquake is thought to be the biggest in terms of magnitude to hit Taiwan since 1999 when a 7.6 quake killed about 2,400 people and damaged or destroyed 50,000 buildings.