Worker dies in construction accident at TSMC southern plant

Taipei, May 26 (CNA) A worker died Monday at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s (TSMC) under-construction advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging plant in Chiayi County, the company confirmed.

TSMC said it has voluntarily halted all construction at the factory, located in the Chiayi section of the Southern Taiwan Science Park.

The semiconductor foundry said the worker was employed by a contractor and that onsite personnel administered first aid immediately before an ambulance took him to the hospital.

However, the worker later died from his injuries, TSMC said.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration under the Ministry of Labor said it received a report around noon on Monday that at 10:20 a.m., a forklift operator transporting a transformer box failed to notice a drop in the construction site's ground.

The transformer box fell from the forklift as it passed the drop and struck the nearby worker, the report said.

According to the agency's southern occupational safety office, the worker was taken to Chiayi Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries about an hour after arriving.

TSMC said it will cooperate with authorities in their investigation into the accident and assist the contractor company working on the site with the aftermath of the worker's death.

The under-construction CoWoS packaging plant is TSMC's first of two it plans to build in Chiayi. It is scheduled to begin mass production in 2028, and expected to create about 3,000 jobs, according to TSMC.