The recent powerful earthquake in Taiwan briefly halted chip production at factories along the island's west coast, raising concerns in the tech industry given the world's reliance on semiconductor chips produced there. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) produces about 92% of the most sophisticated chips in the world. TSMC's factories are expected to resume production with only minor disruptions reported, despite being evacuated for inspections following the earthquake. Analysts caution that even small disruptions in Taiwan's chip manufacturing could cause major financial losses and delays in shipments. Experts have long noted that natural disasters could have a trillion-dollar economic impact on Taiwan's chip industry, making the global economy particularly vulnerable to such events.
https://www.npr.org/2024/04/03/1242564161/taiwan-earthquake-semiconductor-chips-tech
7 comments:
Just another reason why Intel is in Columbus now. It'll be really interesting to see the race for the 2nd spot behind Taiwan in making semi conductor chips.
Going off what Cooper said, it sounds like some competition is definitely needed in this industry if one company's short-term delay could cause major financial losses and impact the global economy. Plus I remember the chip shortage that was going on with cars not too long ago.
It was lucky that there was not any significant damage done to the factories. What real-world issues would arise from a small delay in production? Would even an event this small have an effect on the average person's life?
Do you think the tech industry should reassess its dependence on Taiwan's chip manufacturing sector and consider diversifying its supply chain to mitigate the risks posed by natural disasters?
It is a good thing that the factories were able to come away from the earthquake relatively unharmed. In these time it really makes you think about how it can be risky to be solely reliant on one location for one product in totality. Like Tim said I am interested in how the average person would have been affected had the factory suffered losses from the earthquake.
This brings up an interesting dilemma that I hadn't really thought about. There are certain places that are prone to natural disasters, so it must be difficult to rely on some of these places for manufacturing needs due to unplanned disruptions in the market.
Considering the intensive planning that goes into these industries, I wonder if these are things that experts ever plan for and have actions in place to mitigate losses.
Post a Comment