Taiwan Chipmakers Prepare to Transport Water as Drought Worsens
TAIPEI — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world’s largest chip foundry, and other chipmakers on the island say they are prepared to ship water supplies to their fabs here if drought conditions worsen.
TSMC, a supplier to major electronics companies including Apple, Qualcomm, Nvidia and MediaTek, said it will use as many as 180 trucks, each with a capacity of about three metric tons, for water delivery to maintain operations at fab sites in Hsinchu, Taichung and Tainan in the event that the government tightens rationing.
“It all depends on the government,” TSMC Director of Corporate Communications Elizabeth Sun said today to EE Times. If the government shuts off water supplies two days per week at TSMC’s manufacturing sites, the chipmaker will start supplementing water supplies through truck delivery, she said.
To be sure, TSMC has implemented recycling measures following a drought more than a decade ago that forced the company to resort to costly truck deliveries. TSMC’s fabs today operate at an 87% recycling rate for the 90,000 metric tons of water used daily at its sites in Taiwan.
United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) says it is similarly prepared.
“If the Taiwan government elevates its restriction measures, UMC already has additional contingency measures in place to accommodate up to a 20% reduction in public water allocation, including the purchase and transport of sufficient amounts of water from third-party sources, UMC spokesman Richard Yu said in a March 20 email. “Since the beginning of the year, UMC has proactively conserved an additional 3% water on top of our existing manufacturing water recycling rate of more than 85%.”
Stage-three rationing
In more seriously affected parts of the island, the Taiwan
government has already started its third stage of rationing to cut
water supplies two days a week. For some companies that consume at
least 1,000 metric tons of water each month, the government has
reduced the water supply by up to 10%.
Taiwan’s rainfall from October through March is the lowest since 1947, when the government started keeping records. The Water Resource Agency is forecasting a “high likelihood” of drier weather in the next three months.
Taiwan accounts for about a fifth of the world’s installed fab capacity, according to IC Insights. The island also has a number of LCD makers, including Innolux Corp. and AU Optronics.
—Alan Patterson covers the electronics industry in Taiwan for EE Times.