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After the earthquake in Taiwan, Apple's chip partner TSMC launched its production lines in the territory, minimizing downtime this aspect of Apple's supply chain.
A magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit Taiwan on Wednesday, killing at least nine people and injuring more than 800 residents. The seismic event destroyed buildings and infrastructure and momentarily brought the industry to a standstill.
As part of its safety measures, Apple chip supplier TSMC stopped production on a number of its production lines and evacuated employees from some of its factories. While some were initially allowed to return to work, a day later the company is in much better shape.
Less than 10 hours after the earthquake, TSMC restored operation of 70% to 80% of its equipment, Bloomberg reports.
“Our critical instruments, including all of our extreme ultraviolet lithography instruments, were not affected,” TSMC said in a statement late Wednesday. The tools mentioned are used in the production of some of TSMC's smallest processes, such as those for Apple and Nvidia chips.
The objects were not completely undamaged, as a small number of instruments were still damaged in some places. Despite this, TSMC says it is working to achieve a full recovery as soon as possible.
There were some concerns that an earthquake in Taiwan could cause serious damage to the global computer industry due to the huge number of chips produced there. It is unclear whether existing production was interrupted, as production continuously takes time and capacity for days or weeks, depending on the chip.
Barclays analysts writing shortly after the quake believed any shutdown could cause problems for processes that require weeks of isolation in a vacuum. Citigroup later said optimistically that the event should be “manageable” for TSMC, with Jeffries also expecting a “limited” impact.
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