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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: StanX Long who wrote (60995)	2/27/2002 2:02:14 AM
From: StanX Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Just we we thought things were improving, Taiwan's electronics industry facing water crisis By Faith Hung EBN (02/26/02 11:39 a.m. EST) siliconstrategies.com HSINCHU, Taiwan -- Taiwan's makers of electronic devices are facing a possible suspension of some production as soon as next month because of a lack of water. Because of a persistent drought, the Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park, which houses companies like foundry giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., now receives only 95,000 metric tons of water on a daily basis. That's well below the 120,000 tons the Park normally needs, according to the administration of the Park. Even though the companies together are buying 25,000 tons of water per day from outside of the Park to help relieve the situation, concerns are growing that water will be running out in two weeks, forcing the manufacturers to halt production, said the administration and some of the companies. “There's no immediate impact yet, but pretty soon most of us would be affected,” said Jesse Chou, a spokesman of TSMC, the world's biggest foundry that offers services to OEMs, integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) and fabless design houses such as Nvidia Corp. and ATI Technologies. TSMC, rival United Microelectronics Corp., DRAM makers such as Winbond Electronics Corp., and TFT-LCD producers like AU Optronics would be hit hardest by a shortage in water supply, analysts said. These companies, together with others in the Park, shipped products worth $8.22 billion to worldwide customers in 2001, ccording to statistics from the Administration. Northern Taiwan, where the Park is located, is having its worst rainfall shortage in the past five to six years. From November 2001 through this month, rainfall in the north of the island represented only 34% of the last few years' average in the same period, said Randy Yen, deputy director general of the Administration.