TSMC's operations unaffected by strong quakes early Tuesday morning

Taipei, April 23 (CNA) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) said its operations were not affected by a spate of strong earthquakes that were centered in eastern Taiwan and shook much of Taiwan on Tuesday morning.

In a statement, the world's largest contract chipmaker said soon after the earthquakes, including one of magnitude 6.3, rocked the island, the company followed standard procedures and evacuated workers from clean rooms in some of plants in Taiwan as a safety precaution.

Clean rooms are designed to remove potential contamination, such as from the tiniest speck of dust, hair or airborne particles, from the production environment.

TSMC said the evacuated workers were back in their posts and were all safe later in the day, while its plant operations and industrial safety systems remained normal despite the earthquakes.

In the Hsinchu Science Park, Central Taiwan Science Park, and Southern Taiwan Science Park where TSMC operates advanced wafer fabs, the intensity of the strongest quakes -- which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event -- reached a high of level 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale.

An intensity of 3 means the earthquake is felt by everyone and shakes buildings but does not usually lead to damage.

For its part, United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), a smaller contract chipmaker, said its wafer plants in the Hsinchu Science Park and Southern Taiwan Science Park remained unaffected by the earthquakes.

The 6.3 magnitude struck Hualien at 2:32 a.m., with its epicenter located in Hualien's Shoufeng Township, 17.2 km south-southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 5.5 km.

The quake's intensity was highest in Hualien County, where it measured a 5- on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale.

That was preceded just minutes earlier by a magnitude 6.0 earthquake. Its epicenter was located off the Hualien coast in the Pacific Ocean, 29.9 kilometers south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 10 km.

The intensity was also highest in Hualien County, where it measured 5-.

The Central Weather Administration said these quakes were all aftershocks of the magnitude 7.2 mainshock that occurred just off the coast of Hualien County on April 3.

TSMC said most of the equipment at its fabs in Taiwan was up and running just three days after the massive earthquake hit, and there was no damage to critical equipment such as extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines, which manufacture advanced chips.

But it estimated it will book a loss of about NT$3 billion (US$91.88 million) in the second quarter due to the April 3 earthquake, which is expected to cut its gross margin by 0.5 percentage points in the April to June quarter.

Still, TSMC has left unchanged its sales guidance of a 21-26 percent year-on-year increase for 2024 in U.S. dollar terms.