A powerful undersea earthquake off Taiwan on Wednesday morning killed at least seven people, rattled the island’s vital high-tech industries and briefly triggered tsunami warnings in the Philippines and Japan’s Okinawa region.
The 7.2-magnitude quake off Hualien was the largest to hit the island since September 1999, Taiwan’s Central Meteorological Administration said. The full extent of casualties and damage was not immediately clear, but Taiwan’s interior ministry reported seven dead and hundreds injured by mid-afternoon. Photographs showed heavily toppled buildings and broken railway tracks in Hualien, where the local government suspended work and schools for a day. Roads leading into the city were also cracked.
Taiwan’s technology companies rushed to assess the impact. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest chipmaker, evacuated some of its factories as a precaution.
In a statement, the company said: “Preventive measures have been taken according to procedure and some factories have been evacuated. All personnel are safe and evacuees have begun to return to work. The company is currently confirming the details of the impact”.
TSMC added that it had “decided to suspend work on construction sites [for new facilities] for today, and work will resume after further inspection”.
Liu Chitong, CFO of United Microelectronics, told Nikkei Asia that the world’s third-largest contract chipmaker had also evacuated its production facilities. “Some chip production machines have been stopped, and now our team is working to restart the production machines as soon as possible,” he said.
Display manufacturers Innolux and AUO also evacuated their facilities.
A manager at one of TSMC’s equipment suppliers told Nikkei Asia that his company was discussing whether to send more staff to work overtime to help chipmakers make up for the disruption during the grave-sweeping holiday later this week.
Sources at TSMC said some wafers had cracked and some machines had stopped at factories in Hsinchu. Many people are expected to have to work over the holiday as a result.
The impact in Tainan, home to some of the most advanced chip manufacturing facilities, including TSMC’s 5-nanometre and 3-nanometre factories that produce processors for Apple’s iPhones and Nvidia’s artificial intelligence computing chips, initially appeared to be milder.
On the Taiwan Stock Exchange, the Taiex Weighted Index fell immediately after the opening bell. It fell as much as 0.96 per cent during the day and closed down 0.63 per cent.
In Japan, the Meteorological Agency initially measured the magnitude of the earthquake at 7.5, then raised it to 7.7, while officials said they were investigating the difference with Taiwan’s readings. The quake was said to have struck at a depth of 23 kilometres.
Japanese authorities had initially warned of a tsunami in Okinawa that could reach up to 3 metres. At 9.18am, a tsunami of up to 30cm was recorded on the Japanese island of Yonaguni, near Taiwan. Authorities in the Philippines also issued a tsunami warning for four northern provinces.
Authorities in both countries later cancelled the warnings.
Naha airport, near the coast on the main island of Okinawa, temporarily suspended commercial flights due to the tsunami warning, but resumed operations at around 11:00.
Several Japanese companies operating in Taiwan reported minor damage, including chip manufacturing equipment maker Tokyo Electron and wafer polishing machine supplier Ebara. Tokyo Electron has several facilities in Hsinchu, Linkou, Taichung and Tainan, mostly for maintenance and corporate operations, but said it did not expect any long-term effects.
Meanwhile, a Japan Meteorological Agency official warned of further seismic instability: “Beware of earthquakes of the same magnitude for about a week after the earthquake. In particular, large earthquakes are likely to occur in the next two to three days”. According to the agency, the earthquake was most likely caused by the compression and slip of dip-slip faults.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida offered his condolences to the victims in Taiwan. “Japan is ready to provide all necessary assistance to Taiwan, our neighbour across the sea, in its difficult time,” he said. Taiwan hit by strongest earthquake since 1999, technology sector also affected
A powerful undersea earthquake near Taiwan on Wednesday morning killed at least seven people and rattled the island’s vital high-tech industries, briefly triggering tsunami warnings in the Philippines and Japan’s Okinawa region.
The 7.2 magnitude quake off Hualien was the largest to hit the island since September 1999, according to Taiwan’s Central Meteorological Administration. The full extent of casualties and damage was not immediately clear, but Taiwan’s interior ministry reported seven dead and hundreds injured by mid-afternoon. Photographs showed heavily toppled buildings and broken railway tracks in Hualien, where the local government suspended work and schools for a day.Roads leading into the city were also cracked.
Taiwan’s technology companies rushed to assess the impact.Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest chipmaker, evacuated some of its factories as a precaution.In a statement, the company said: “Preventive measures have been taken according to procedure and some factories have been evacuated.All personnel are safe and evacuees have begun to return to work. The company is currently confirming the details of the impact”.
TSMC added that it had “decided to suspend work on construction sites [for new facilities] for today, and work will resume after further inspection”.
Liu Chitong, CFO of United Microelectronics, told Nikkei Asia that the world’s third-largest contract chipmaker had also evacuated its production facilities. “Some chip production machines have been stopped, and now our team is working to restart the production machines as soon as possible,” he said.Display manufacturers Innolux and AUO also evacuated their facilities.
A manager at one of TSMC’s equipment suppliers told Nikkei Asia that his company was discussing whether to send more staff to work overtime to help chipmakers make up for the disruption during the grave-sweeping holiday later this week.Sources at TSMC said some wafers had cracked and some machines had stopped at factories in Hsinchu. Many people are expected to have to work over the holiday as a result.The impact in Tainan, home to some of the most advanced chip manufacturing facilities, including TSMC’s 5-nanometre and 3-nanometre factories that produce processors for Apple’s iPhones and Nvidia’s artificial intelligence computing chips, initially appeared to be milder.
On the Taiwan Stock Exchange, the Taiex Weighted Index fell immediately after the opening bell. It fell as much as 0.96 per cent during the day and closed down 0.63 per cent.In Japan, the Meteorological Agency initially measured the magnitude of the earthquake at 7.5, then raised it to 7.7, while officials said they were investigating the difference with Taiwan’s readings.The quake was said to have struck at a depth of 23 kilometres.Japanese authorities had initially warned of a tsunami in Okinawa that could reach up to 3 metres.At 9.18am, a tsunami of up to 30cm was recorded on the Japanese island of Yonaguni, near Taiwan. Authorities in the Philippines also issued a tsunami warning for four northern provinces.
Authorities in both countries later cancelled the warnings.
Naha airport, near the coast on the main island of Okinawa, temporarily suspended commercial flights due to the tsunami warning, but resumed operations at around 11:00.Several Japanese companies operating in Taiwan reported minor damage, including chip manufacturing equipment maker Tokyo Electron and wafer polishing machine supplier Ebara. Tokyo Electron has several facilities in Hsinchu, Linkou, Taichung and Tainan, mostly for maintenance and corporate operations, but said it did not expect any long-term effects.Meanwhile, a Japan Meteorological Agency official warned of further seismic instability:”Beware of earthquakes of the same magnitude for about a week after the earthquake. In particular, large earthquakes are likely to occur in the next two to three days”.According to the agency, the earthquake was most likely caused by the compression and slip of dip-slip faults.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida offered his condolences to the victims in Taiwan.”Japan is ready to provide all necessary assistance to Taiwan, our neighbour across the sea, in its difficult time,” he said.
