Manufacturers in Taiwan's science parks resume operation: NSTC

Taipei, April 4 (CNA) Science parks in Taiwan are returning to their normal operations after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck the island and forced some factories to halt their manufacturing on Wednesday, the government agency overseeing the management of the parks said Thursday.

As of Thursday noon, most of the semiconductor fabs and panel manufacturers in the Hsinchu Science Park have restarted their machines on the day of the earthquake after a temporary halt, with a few recalibrating and restarting operation soon, the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) said in a press statement.

Andrea Hsu (許增如), director-general of the council's department that oversees park affairs, explained that many high-end panel and semiconductor manufacturing facilities would automatically stop operating when an earthquake of magnitude 4 or higher strikes.

Also, as their manufacturing involves chemicals and gases, the companies would also evacuate their workers in the event of an earthquake with such an intensity like the one that hit Taiwan on Wednesday, out of safety concerns, she added.

In central Taiwan, the Central Taiwan Science Park has manufacturers of opto-electronics, semiconductors, and precise machineries as its main occupants.

According to the NSTC, 90 percent of the semiconductor fabs in the science park have put their high precision machine equipment back to work, and all are expected to return to their normal operation after recalibration by the end of Thursday.

The agency added that most of the major manufacturers in the Southern Taiwan Science Park have also returned to their normal operations, and they include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., United Microelectronics Corp., Innolux Corp., Corning Display Technologies Taiwan, and HannStar Display Corp.

The NSTC said it organized an emergency response team right after the Wednesday's earthquake, and the three bureaus managing the affairs of the three parks also set up their respective emergency response centers.

The bureaus were tasked with ensuring the safety and stability of the basic infrastructure supplying water, electricity, gases, and transportation of the science parks.

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