Taiwan fabs press on after typhoon strikes island
By Mark Carroll
EE Times
(08/23/00, 06:34:39 PM EDT)
TAIPEI, Taiwan ( ChipWire) -- A strong typhoon swept across parts of southern and central Taiwan today but left little damage in its wake for Taiwan's semiconductor industry.
Still, a government-declared emergency holiday will end up costing chip makers, who must compensate workers with overtime pay.
With sustained winds of 150 miles per hour, the typhoon struck the southeast coast of Taiwan and worked its way northwest. Several people were killed and others were injured in the storm. Electrical power was out in southern regions of the island immediately after the storm. However, Taipei and Hsinchu, home of Taiwan's bustling semiconductor industry, suffered only sporadic power outages and were largely unaffected by the typhoon.
"The central mountains of Taiwan broke up the power of the storm," said a spokesman for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC). "Since the majority of our fabs are in the northwest city of Hsinchu, we weren't affected."
The government declared a two-day state of emergency prior to the storm and told workers to go home. Most didn't comply with the edict on Tuesday, but many stayed home on Wednesday.
Even so, work continued at Taiwan's fabs. "We had no loss of electricity," the TSMC spokesman said. "That was our biggest worry. We are used to power shortages, though, at this time of the year and have learned how to deal with it."
Taiwan and its chip makers suffered a devastating earthquake in September 1998 that forced TSMC and other chip makers to shut down their fabs for several days to recalibrate equipment and replace ruined wafers.
The biggest impact of the latest typhoon here was to give two days off to many workers accustomed to working long hours. "Since the government declared it an emergency holiday, we have to pay our line workers overtime for working on Tuesday and Wednesday," the TSMC spokesman said. |
