(Reuters) – Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co resumed work at its construction sites in the earthquake-hit country after pausing it for a day for inspections, the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer said on Thursday.
The quake had raised fears of disruptions to chip supply as TSMC produces a big share of the most advanced semiconductors, and its customers include Apple and AI chip leader Nvidia.
TSMC said its initial checks showed that safety systems at its Taiwan-based chip fabs were operating normally. Some fabs were evacuated but all personnel were safe and had returned to their workplace shortly after the quake, it said.
Operations were partially impacted by the damage caused to a small number of tools at certain facilities, the company said, adding that those did not include critical chip-making tools such as its extreme ultraviolet lithography tools.
These tools are produced by Dutch firm ASML Holding and could cost upwards of $150 million.
Certain production lines in areas that faced greater impact were likely to take more time to return to fully automated production, the company said.
TSMC said its overall tool recovery of its fabrication facilities exceeded 80% as of Thursday. New fabs such as the Fab 18 in Tainan are expected to reach full recovery later tonight.
The company’s U.S.-listed shares were up about 3%.
(Reporting by Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
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