In a rare occurrence, Taiwan was recently hit by its most powerful earthquake in the past 25 years, causing significant disruptions in the global supply chain for semiconductors and related tech products. With a magnitude of 7.2, the earthquake led to the unfortunate loss of 10 lives and left over 1,000 individuals injured.
Taiwan, known for its crucial role in the semiconductor industry, faced challenges as some semiconductor plants had to halt operations temporarily due to the earthquake. The country is home to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world’s largest chipmaker that supplies chips to major technology companies like Apple and Nvidia. Despite the safety measures in place, the earthquake impacted inventory levels and prices of tech products.
TSMC reported that its fabs were impacted by the earthquake but managed to recover 70% of tools within just 10 hours, with new fabs like Fab 18 facility reaching over 80% recovery. On the other hand, Nvidia reassured stakeholders that its supply chain would not be affected by the earthquake.
Experts emphasized the importance of having redundancies in the global supply chain to mitigate disruptions caused by natural disasters like earthquakes. The recent event underscored the necessity of diversifying supply chain sources to reduce reliance on a single company, country, or region for critical technology.
The earthquake shed light on Taiwan’s significant role in the chip supply chain and emphasized the need for swift remediation of disruptions in semiconductor operations. Moving forward, stakeholders are urged to reassess and enhance supply chain strategies to ensure resilience in the face of unforeseen events.
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