Taiwan Earthquake Interrupts Micron Semiconductor Factories 

A powerful earthquake struck Taiwan Sunday and reportedly knocked some of Micron Technology Inc.’s facilities offline, according to Bloomberg. 

On Sunday, an earthquake of magnitude 6.5 struck northeastern Taiwan. The quake was large enough to affect Micron’s facilities in the northern Taiwanese city of Taoyuan. 

Micron is still evaluating the impact and “determining the appropriate steps to return to full production.” The statement by one of the top computer memory and computer data storage companies was vague and didn’t detail what exact product lines were impacted. 

Micron is a top producer of semiconductor chips, and the ongoing shortage in the industry and new developments arising from Taiwan could darken the outlook for chips. Expectations for the chip shortage to normalize could be at least another year. 

“The semiconductor situation is going to take a long time to fix,” US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said at the Milken Institute Global Conference last week. “This is one I feel confident saying it’s not going to be fixed in a month or two, or six, or 12 months.”

Also, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd., the world’s largest contract chipmaker, evacuated some workers on Sunday as the earthquake shook buildings across the island. Taiwan resides near two tectonic plates and is prone to earthquakes. 

Suppose the production of Micron chips isn’t brought up to full capacity in the near term. A supply chain analysis shows companies such as Apple, Dell, Intel, HP, LG, Hewlett Packard, and Cisco Systems could face order issues. 

Already, Apple, Tesla, and Ford, among many others, have complained about chip shortages. Shown below is the number of times “semiconductor shortage” has been mentioned in Bloomberg news stories has hit a record high this month. 

Add earthquakes to unexpected issues plaguing supply chains that could exacerbate the great semiconductor shortage.