TSMC, the Taiwanese manufacturer of iPhone chips, may have been harmed by Thursday’s power outage. Outages spread across the southern part of the country, including the two main cities.
Intense Blackouts Put Taiwan Under Electricity Shock
The interruption impacted Taiwan’s capital Taipei as well as its second largest city, Kaoshiung (via Nikkei Asia). The interruption affected more than 5 million households, as well as manufacturing parks like the one that houses TSMC’s factory.
Taiwan Power Co. said in a brief statement that its southern power grid system had malfunctioned. As a result, southern Taiwan was plunged into darkness as well as a few other sections of the country.
Kaohsiung’s Hsinta Power Plant (Kaohsiung’s largest power plant) was the focus of the issue. A decision was made to remove the Hsinta Power Plant off Taiwan’s electrical grid, according to Economic Minister Want Mei-Hua. “It will take some time to get everything back up and running,” Mei-Hua said further.
75 percent of Taiwan’s 5.49 million impacted households had electricity restored by Thursday afternoon. There will be no more power outages until Thursday night, according to Wang.
Impact on TSMC, The Manufacturer of The iPhone Chips Unknown
A blackout in Tainan Science Park, home of TSMC’s most advanced chip manufacturing facilities, resulted in rapid and anomalous voltage shifts. Innolux, a Foxconn affiliate, as well as United Microelectronics have facilities in the area.
As of Thursday morning, TSMC had yet to evaluate the extent of the power disruptions’ impact on the company’s production. At the time, the products that were currently in production had not yet been announced by the corporation.
TSMC makes processors for more than just Apple, so gauging the impact on iPhone production is impossible. The interruption may not have any effect on iPhone chip supplies if the plant was completing another run for a different customer.
Problems with Power in the Past
Taiwanese citizens are accustomed to frequent blackouts. Approximately 4 million households were affected by its last massive outage, which occurred in 2021. The Hsinta Power Plant faults were responsible for this one as well.
In 2017, 6.68 million households were affected by a big outage. Taiwan’s TSMC factory is one of the largest and most advanced in the world, but the company still has a number of other facilities. Building a new factory in Arizona is also being planned by the company.
