TSMC "Over 80% of Facilities Restored... Construction of New Plant Resumes"

The world's largest foundry company, Taiwan's TSMC, announced that more than 80% of its factory facilities have been restored from earthquake damage. Construction work on a new plant, which had been halted due to safety concerns, has also resumed.

TSMC made this announcement in a statement on the night of the 4th regarding the damage caused by the large-scale earthquake that occurred the previous day. The company reported that the factory located in Tainan City, southern Taiwan, was fully restored on the same day.

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TSMC operates four 12-inch wafer fabs in Tainan, Hsinchu, and Taichung in Taiwan. Four 8-inch wafer fabs are also operating in the Tainan and Hsinchu regions. The Tainan factory, which has completed restoration, is known as a major hub for semiconductors supplied to U.S. companies Apple and Nvidia.

Additionally, some factories experienced damage to a small number of facilities, affecting operations, and there are production lines in areas with severe damage that will take some time to restore.

Taiwanese research firm TrendForce reported on the same day that the quartz chamber of TSMC's new large factory in northern Hsinchu, where the headquarters is located, was damaged, exposing equipment to moisture and causing damage. This is expected to mainly affect TSMC's next-generation semiconductor "2-nanometer (nm)" process under development. However, TrendForce predicted that the impact of the damage would be short-term and that capital investment in facilities would slightly increase due to issues such as the introduction of new equipment.

However, TSMC distanced itself from local media reports estimating the damage at about $60 million (approximately 80.9 billion KRW), stating, "This is not information announced by TSMC."

Taiwan is a global center for wafer manufacturing, accounting for 46% of the world's wafer foundry production capacity last year. In particular, its market share reaches 68% based on production capacity in advanced processes (14nm, 16nm, and high-end processes). Taiwan is home to top 10 foundry companies such as TSMC, United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), Power Semiconductor, and AMD. As of the fourth quarter of last year, their market shares were approximately 61.2%, 5.4%, 1.0%, and 1.0%, respectively.

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